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December 2017

Satyan Lakshminrusimha, a world renowned neonatologist, has been named chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the UC Davis School of Medicine. The department provides state-of-the-art clinical care and conducts research into disease conditions affecting infants, children, adolescents and young adults. Lakshminrusimha also serves as medical director of UC Davis Children's Hospital, the only nationally ranked pediatric hospital in inland Northern California.

Leaders and faculty from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis hosted a pinning ceremony for students in the inaugural class of the Master’s Entry Program in Nursing program. The traditional event is a symbolic welcoming of newly graduated nurses into the nursing profession. Members of the inaugural class formally complete their graduate school studies Dec. 15 and are then prepared take the national licensing examination for registered nurses.

Children’s Miracle Network at UC Davis and Lazer Broadcasting Corporation raised close to $200,000 for UC Davis Children’s Hospital during the annual Lazer Radiothon held in October. The $198,746 total reflects a 32 percent increase over 2016.

Microbiologists at the University of California, Davis who analyzed swabs taken by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) and compared them with samples from homes on earth as well as the Human Microbiome Project found that the microbial community in this unique habitat was very diverse and more closely resembled that of homes than of humans.

More than 1,250 children and their families gathered at the MIND Institute on Saturday for the 15th annual thank-you party, a celebration of their participation in studies or programs that advance research in neurodevelopmental disorders.

The UC Davis MIND Institute will host Joey Travolta on Wednesday, Dec. 13 as part of the ongoing Distinguished Lecturer Series. Travolta, owner of Inclusion Films, will present “Lights, Camera, Independence” at 4:30 p.m. at the MIND Institute Auditorium, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento. This event is open to the public, and no reservations are required. A 30-minute question-and-answer session will follow the hour-long lecture.

A microscope using ultraviolet light to illuminate samples enables pathologists to assess high-resolution images of biopsies and other fresh tissue samples for disease within minutes, without requiring the time-consuming preparation of conventional slides or destroying the tissue.

A state law that funded upgrades to California’s prescription drug monitoring program and mandated physicians, pharmacists and controlled substance prescribers to register by July 2016 significantly increased registration rates, a new survey of 1,904 California physicians and pharmacists conducted by the UC Davis Violence Prevention Program has found.

Robert Cardiff, renowned pathologist who specializes in the diagnosis of breast and mammary cancer in both human and animal models, has been selected to receive the UC Davis Emeriti Association's 2018 UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Award.

A large, multi-center, international study to assess the long-term benefits of glucocorticoid treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) concludes that it does preserve muscle strength and function as well as reduce the risk of death for patients.

Sacramento County is opening a Mental Health Urgent Care Clinic Nov. 29 for adults and children with less acute psychiatric crises or for those requiring an urgent psychiatric evaluation. Located on the county’s Mental Health Treatment Center campus on Stockton Blvd., the walk-in clinic provides an important alternative to UC Davis Medical Center's busy emergency department.

Patients who ask for specialist referrals, laboratory tests or certain medications and don’t get them tend to be less satisfied with their doctors than those whose requests are fulfilled, new research from UC Davis Health shows. Based on the results, the study authors recommend communications training for physicians that fosters positive experiences for patients without agreeing to all requests for particular diagnostics or treatments.

A shared project between UC Davis Health and Marshall Medical Center has enabled the Placerville-based community hospital to transition to a new, state-of-the-art electronic health record (EHR) system.

The medical school interview – a key determinant in the admissions process and, ultimately, in the physician workforce – appears to skew for or against applicants depending on their age, gender and self-identified disadvantaged socioeconomic status.

Three UC Davis Health faulty members have been elected to the newest class of fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. They are among 15 UC Davis faculty to receive the honor, announced today.

Christopher P. Austin, a neurologist and geneticist who directs the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at NIH, spent Wednesday, Nov. 8 touring UC Davis research labs. He gained insights from CTSC program leaders, physicians and scientists on how to improve the movement of observations from the laboratory and clinic into the community with interventions that reach and benefit patients.

UC Davis MIND Institute esearchers have shown in a mouse model that an elevated maternal immune response changes the epigenetic landscape in offspring’s microglia, immune cells found in the brain and spinal cord. These changes affect genes associated with immune signaling and neural development, some of which have been implicated in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study was published online in the journal Glia.

To make the donation of toys and other gifts easier for generous businesses, non-profit organizations and donors, UC Davis is offering donors the opportunity to drive up and drop off donations for the holidays.

Giving bad news is never easy, especially when it’s life or death. But when an oncologist delivers a poor prognosis to a cancer patient, does it harm their relationship? Some research studies have suggested it can.

The UC Davis Department of Pediatrics has received a $2 million, five-year grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to fund a new telemedicine program for children in remote communities. The School-Based Tele-Physiatry Assistance for Rehabilitative and Therapeutic Services (STARS) program will provide critical physiatry care for kids with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, spinal cord injuries and other disabilities. The team believes the program will close gaps in care, improve quality of life for affected children and save money. [En Español]

Nancy Rodriguez, a third-year medical student at UC Davis School of Medicine, has been awarded one of this year’s Herbert W. Nickens Medical Student Scholarships by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Pertussis, widely known as “whooping cough,” is a contagious bacterial infection of the respiratory system. It’s called “whooping cough” because children infected with it gasp for air between the fierce bouts of coughing that it causes.

More than 70 golfers participated in Monday’s Gratitude Golf Tournament, hosted by Children’s Miracle Network at UC Davis. Located at the Yocha Dehe Golf Club, the event featured a day of golf, gratitude and fellowship in support of children’s health and UC Davis Children’s Hospital. The event was made possible by a $5,000 golf grant from Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

For many, breast cancer is more than just a disease – it’s personal. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives. But through new discoveries at the genetic level, the personal nature of cancer will eventually be what helps to beat it.

A startup company founded by a University of California, Davis, neuroscientist is developing video games that act as “digital medicine” to treat children with cognitive impairments, as well as people with cognitive limitations resulting from brain injury or aging. The company, Cognivive, is built on research by co-founder Tony Simon, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UC Davis, and others showing that playing action video games can enhance players’ spatiotemporal cognitive abilities.

UC Davis Health physicians, surgeons, researchers and educators are available as media resources on COPD. Interviews with patients can be arranged as well. To schedule an interview, please contact Karen Finney at 916-734-9064 or klfinney@ucdavis.edu.

October 2017

Local gamers of all levels and from all categories — console, mobile, PC, table-top, etc. — are uniting for one cause on Saturday, November 4: to save and improve the lives of kids treated at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Extra Life, a Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals) fundraising program, provides game-loving locals a fun way to support UC Davis Children’s Hospital, the local CMN Hospital.

UC Davis Children's Hospital’s Halloween celebration took place today on the pediatrics unit. Patients and staff got into the Halloween spirit with costumes, games and trick-or-treating. The special event was made possible by the Davis 7 pediatric nurses and the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department.

The UC Davis MIND Institute will host Joshua Gordon on Wednesday, Nov. 8 as part of the ongoing Distinguished Lecturer Series. Gordon, director, National Institute of Mental Health, will present “A neural circuit approach to mental illness” at 4:30 p.m. at the MIND Institute Auditorium, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento. This event is open to the public, and no reservations are required. A 30-minute question-and-answer session will follow the hour-long lecture.

Participating in a brief intervention delivered by their peers in community settings can help reduce smoking among youth and young adults, a new study from a team of tobacco-cessation researchers shows.

More than one out of every five students report being bullied, according to the National Center for Educational Statistics. October is national bullying prevention month and UC Davis adolescent medicine physician Laura Kester has prepared some helpful tips for families to help them identify and combat bullying behaviors.

The Scientific Forum of this year’s Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), held Oct. 22-26 in San Diego, has been dedicated to Diana Farmer, chair of the UC Davis Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief of UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

Five-year-old Zoey Kenison slips her feet onto the bike pedals and begins cycling, hands gripping the handle bars. But this is no ordinary bike. It’s a pediatric cycle ergometer, a fixed stationary bike that measures her heart rate, blood pressure, electrocardiogram and breath-by-breath respiratory indices, including volumes and the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

Research conducted in mice at the UC Davis MIND Institute suggests that a drug treatment can reverse cognitive deficits and social abnormalities in a rare genetic disorder, 16p11.2 deletion syndrome, which includes symptoms of intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder, among others. Results of parallel studies conducted at the MIND and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Picower Institute for Learning and Memory appear in the latest issue of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

UC Davis has received its first National Cancer Institute (NCI) Moonshot grant ̶ $2.5 million over five years ̶ to explore immunotherapy treatments for dogs who develop melanoma and osteosarcoma and that may one day benefit humans, as well.

Members of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center lung cancer treatment team will present at WCLC 2017, a one-day conference on Saturday, Nov. 11, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. in San Francisco. Presenters will share the latest lung cancer and other thoracic malignancy advances highlighted at the recent 18th Annual World Conference on Lung Cancer in Japan.

Erik Fernandez y Garcia, associate professor of clinical pediatrics at UC Davis Children's Hospital, has been awarded the best poster presentation at the 2017 International Conference on Communication in Healthcare and Health Literacy Annual Research Conference in Baltimore this month.

Kohl’s Cares will donate $450,000 over two years to the UC Davis Children’s Hospital's Kohl’s Injury Prevention program. The program will support three strategies in the Sacramento community: to educate teen drivers on safe driving, educate families on childhood safety in and around cars, and educate violently injured and at-risk youth, identified through the UC Davis trauma program, on violence avoidance strategies.

Children's Miracle Network at UC Davis will kick off its radiothon with Lazer Broadcasting Group Oct. 25-27 to raise funds for UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Stations will broadcast a mix of patient stories, facts and interviews into regular programming to raise awareness of and funds for UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

In the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting, many ask what can be done to prevent these tragedies. In an editorial and article published Oct. 16, Annals of Internal Medicine editors along with Garen Wintemute, an emergency room physician and authority on gun violence prevention, urge physicians and health-care providers to make public commitments to ask patients about firearms, counsel them on safe firearm behaviors and take further action when an imminent hazard is present.

The California Disability Services Association has recognized UC Davis Medical Center with one of its annual Employer of the Year awards for its excellence (in the large employer category) in hiring persons with developmental disabilities.

Sometimes a bear hug is just what the doctor ordered. And today was a day of bear hugs (and bat hugs, cat hugs and monkey hugs). Build-a-Bear Workshop in Roseville brought all of these stuffed animals, as well as plenty of clothes, beating hearts and stuffed animal-sized backpacks, to the pediatric patients at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

John P.A. Ioannidis, a leader in encouraging fresh and effective approaches in evidence-based research and clinical investigations, will speak on “Biomedical Research: The False and the True, the Waste and the Useful” as the UC Davis Health Snively Visiting Professor in Family and Community Medicine.

Leaders of UC Davis, along with leaders from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, UC Davis Health and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, host a ribbon cutting and interactive tours for Betty Irene Moore Hall

Of the three states that recently expanded comprehensive background check (CBC) policies to include all gun transfers, including those among private parties, only Delaware showed an overall increase in firearm background checks. Washington and Colorado had no changes, which the study authors say suggests that compliance and enforcement were incomplete.

Stephen Hindshaw shares his family’s journey with mental illness — and his vision to remove the stigma — at a free public lecture sponsored by the Behavioral Health Center of Excellence at UC Davis on Tuesday, Oct. 10, from 5:30 to 7:15 p.m.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and UC Davis are hosting a free patient advocate event about how stem cell therapies are helping patients with unmet medical needs. The event is open to the public.

Fred Meyers has been appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Precision Medicine, a new group of experts that will contribute to the state’s continuing efforts to use advanced computing and technology to better understand, treat and prevent disease.

Assistant Professor Sean Collins, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, has received a $1.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health to advance the development of “smart” immune cells for therapies to treat cancer and other diseases. The five-year NIH Director’s New Innovator Award aims to provide new insight into how to engineer immune cells to control their recruitment and response to tumors.

Thanks to the leadership of Mark Underwood, chief of neonatology at UC Davis Children's Hospital, and the NEC Society’s Scientific Advisory Council, the NEC Society is launching a Multi-NICU Probiotic Quality Improvement (QI) Project. It is the first project of its kind to capture data from NICUs that are ready to start routine administration of probiotics to very low birthweight infants (VLBWs) at risk for necrotizing enterocolitis.

The UC Davis MIND Institute kicks off its 2017-2018 Distinguished Lecturer Series this month with Urs Meyer, pharmacology professor at the University of Zurich. Meyer’s presentation, “Maternal Infection and Immunity in Neurodevelopmental Disorders,” will take place Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 4 p.m. at the MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento. This event is open to the public and no reservations are required.

UC Davis Children's Hospital, UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UC Davis Genome Center are hosting the 2017-2018 Human Genomics Seminar Series, a monthly series focusing on genomic medicine topics, led by UC Davis faculty. Seminars will be held the first Wednesday of every month at noon at the Center for Health and Technology, room 1341.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been named as a Best Children’s Hospital and Best Children’s Hospital for Emergency Care by the Women’s Choice Award, America’s trusted referral source for the best in health care.

September 2017

Jeff Burns of the Kansas University Alzheimer’s Disease Center will present “Exercise in the Fight Against Alzheimer’s” on Thursday, Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center auditorium, 4501 X St. in Sacramento. This is last of the 2017 Community Engagement lecture series hosted by the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center and sponsored by Sunrise Senior Living, Aegis of Carmichael, Revere Court and Norwood Pines Alzheimer’s Care Center.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been re-verified as a Level I Children’s Surgery Center by the American College of Surgeons (ACS) for the next two years. The designation from the ACS Children’s Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program focuses on the nation’s first and only multi-specialty standards of surgical care for pediatric patients. UC Davis Children's Hospital remains the first hospital on the West Coast, and only the fourth in the nation, to earn this distinction.

Beginning in October, the UC Davis MIND Institute will host Minds Behind the MIND, a lecture series featuring leading researchers and clinicians who will present their current research and new treatment findings. Lectures will be held Wednesday evenings in the MIND Institute auditorium, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento beginning Oct. 4.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine today awarded a nearly $8 million grant to University of California, Davis, stem cell researchers to launch a special clinical trials program in Sacramento to accelerate the therapeutic development and delivery of stem cell therapies in human patients.

Leaders of UC Davis, along with leaders from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, UC Davis Health and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, plan a grand opening celebration and ribbon cutting for Betty Irene Moore Hall at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 13 on the UC Davis Sacramento campus.

How do fire-suppression chemicals and pesticides affect wildfire smoke and the health of those who breathe it? UC Davis graduate students discovered that this question cannot be answered based on current scientific evidence and, in a review published in Current Topics in Toxicology, they recommend more studies on the compounds in wildfire smoke.

The Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (CEDD), part of the UC Davis MIND Institute, will host “Sus Derechos de Educación Especial” (Special Education Rights and Assessments) on Saturday, Sept. 30 at the MIND Institute auditorium, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento. The lecture will be given by multicultural affairs advocate Vanessa Ochoa and client rights advocate Brittnee Gillespie, both of Disability Rights California.

Four-year-old Jonathan Hunt has proven that he has the stuff that superheroes are made of. The Fair Oaks resident experienced a stroke in January, after a freak accident on a trampoline left him paralyzed on his right side and unable to walk. After six weeks of hospitalization and daily physical, speech and occupational therapy at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, Johnathan was able to walk out the front doors of the hospital on his own and he continues with outpatient therapy.

Sam's Club and Walmart are kicking off their annual Miracle Balloon campaign by asking customers to support Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and its local hospital, UC Davis Children’s Hospital, from Sept. 21 to Oct. 29. Customers can donate $1 or more when they check out at the register.

Public television station KVIE begins airing the documentary “Before the Fall” on Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 7 p.m. The documentary includes strategies for treating and reducing the risks of falls from UC Davis Health experts Mark Lee, professor of orthopaedic surgery, and Christy Adams, trauma prevention coordinator and co-founder of the StopFalls Coalition.

The University of California’s five academic cancer centers, including the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, have formed a consortium to better address California’s most pressing cancer-related problems and opportunities, UC President Janet Napolitano and Dr. John Stobo, executive vice president of UC Health, announced Sept. 11.

The UC Davis MIND Institute has been awarded a 5-year, $12 million Autism Centers of Excellence (ACE) grant, one of five in the nation, to create a “Center for the Development of Phenotype-based Treatments of Autism Spectrum Disorder.”

When Walnut Grove Elementary School principal Carrie Norris was viewing her students’ Valentine’s Day art honoring what they love most, among the tributes to parents, friends and pets was one for “Doctor PE.” That student was referring to a unique and popular program that brings UC Davis family and community medicine residents to her school twice each week to teach physical education.

Robert Wilson, professor in the Department of Neurological Sciences and Department of Behavioral Sciences at Rush University Medical Center, will speak about “Behavioral Contributions to Cognitive Health” on Thursday, Sept. 14 the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento.

August 2017

In the United States, one in three homes with young children have guns, many which are unlocked and unloaded. To protect children, UC Davis Children’s Hospital reminds parents to keep firearms out of children’s reach and offers these recommendations.

UC Davis stem cell scientist Paul Knoepfler has been awarded a second $250,000 grant for glioma research from an organization begun 15 years ago by a 5-year-old girl with a deadly form of childhood cancer.

In two papers published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute researchers from UC Davis, UCLA and other institutions have found that peripheral neuropathy, which causes pain, numbness, and tingling in hands and/or feet, can bother early-stage breast cancer patients years after completing chemotherapy. In addition, a systematic literature review found only a handful of studies that tracked long-term peripheral neuropathy, leaving little data for patients and clinicians to make informed decisions.

The UC Davis Hospice Program and UC Davis Children's Hospital Bereavement Program will offer an eight-week Young Adult Bereavement Art Group for individuals 17 to 24 who are coping with the recent loss of a loved one.

Heather M. Young, the founding dean of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, is among 24 education and health care leaders named to the new California Future Health Workforce Commission.

A pair of English bulldog puppies are the first patients to be successfully treated with a unique therapy — a combination of surgery and stem cells — developed at the University of California, Davis, to help preserve lower-limb function in children with spina bifida.

After a 19-hour Children's Miracle Network Hospitals®Mediathon on ABC10 KXTV, the final totals revealed that Mediathon viewers and partners raised $573,586 for UC Davis Children's Hospital, the local Children's Miracle Network Hospital in Sacramento.

A review of kidney cancer in California from 1988 through 2013 by the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) has concluded that the high incidence of small tumors and early-stage disease observed in California from 1988 until about 2009 has declined and stabilized in recent years, signaling the end of a trend.

UC Davis researchers have shown that radiation therapy before surgery improves overall survival for patients with soft tissue sarcomas. This pre-surgical, or neoadjuvant, radiotherapy allows surgeons to get better margins around tumors and remove even microscopic cancer tissue more often. The study was published recently in the Annals of Surgical Oncology.

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, in conjunction with Asian Resources, Inc. and the Alzheimer’s Association will host an event on research exploring the connections between brain and body at a free event Monday, Sept. 11 from 10:30 a.m. until noon.

UC Davis Medical Center has received the Gold Level ELSO Award for Excellence in Life Support from the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) for its Extracorporeal Life Support Program. The program provides lifesaving support for failing organ systems in infants, children and adults.

Julie Schweitzer, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and UC Davis MIND Institute researcher, has received a $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to track impulsivity and self-control in teens and young adults over time.

Laughing gas, also known as nitrous oxide, is not just for the dentist’s office. UC Davis Medical Center is now offering nitrous oxide as a pain relief option for mothers during labor. Mothers can breathe in this colorless, odorless nitrous oxide gas -- a blend of nitrous and oxygen -- using a mask that they hold over their mouth and nose to help them relax during contractions.

Juliana Baldo, associate director of the Center for Aphasia and Related Disorders at the Northern California Veterans Administration, will speak about alternative medicine approaches to brain health at a free public lecture on Aug. 31 at 6 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th Street in Sacramento.

Children's Miracle Network at UC Davis will kick off its Radiothon with Entravision Aug. 17-19 to raise funds for UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Stations will broadcast a mix of patient stories, facts and interviews into regular programming to raise awareness of and funds for UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

U.S. News & World Report, which annually recognizes hospitals that excel in treating patients with serious and challenging injuries and illnesses, has again ranked UC Davis Medical Center as one of the nation's best hospitals.

Kidney donor Missy Ewing had the chance to meet her organ recipient for the first time at a recent UC Davis Transplant Center celebration. It was the second lifesaving act of generosity for the Ewing family. Her husband, Chris, became a kidney donor three years ago and launched a series of organ swaps between unmatched donor-recipient pairs that led to four people getting transplants.

Shin-Ping Tu, a national expert on improving health care delivery and cross-cultural medical care, has become chief of the Division of General Medicine at UC Davis Health. She leads a team of nearly 40 physicians who provide comprehensive treatment to adults and research innovative ways to advance patient care, train physicians and improve health policy.

July 2017

This year’sfifth annual Dave and Dan Classic, presented by First Tech Federal Credit Union, raised more than $1.273 million to support Credit Unions for Kids, benefiting six Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, including UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

Health plans that collaborated to share best practices and successful strategies for treating patients diagnosed with hypertension saw significant improvement in controlling high blood pressure, a study by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and UC Davis Institute of Population Health Improvement (IPHI) has found.

Debra Bakerjian, an associate adjunct professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, is among the 72 new fellows of the Gerontological Society of America. Leaders of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging announced this year’s class at the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics World Congressin San Francisco July 25.

Sorting out when or whether to get mammograms can be perplexing for any woman, and a health provider’s advice may not settle the matter. That’s because even experts disagree about when screening mammography is appropriate and for whom.

The University of California has been awarded a nearly $14.7 million multi-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study contributors to dementia in the Latino population in the United States. The multicenter study will examine the biological underpinnings of stroke, mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease among Hispanics, and pursue new therapeutic directions to reduce brain health disparities.

The University of California Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis’ Sacramento campus officially launched July 4 under the direction of Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine and recognized authority on the epidemiology of firearm violence.

Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) investigators have received a $17 million program project grant renewal from the National Cancer Institute to study the effectiveness of different breast cancer screening and surveillance strategies using digital mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis (3D mammography), and breast MRI. Co-led by UC Davis researcher and Dean's Professor of Biostatistics Diana Miglioretti, the consortium seeks to ensure that women get personalized care based on their individual risk and preferences.

The results of an international clinical trial, led in part by a UC Davis School of Medicine expert, have shown that a drug therapy for a severe type of muscular dystrophy holds promise for a subgroup of patients.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adverse drug events from antibiotics result in roughly 143,000 emergency department visits each year nationwide. A research study, co-authored by emergency medicine associate professor Larissa May and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2016, has been selected for the 2017 Charles C. Shepard Science Award in the Assessment category.

How can our bodies have protection against infections and the protection that comes from healthy intestinal bacteria? Mark Underwood, chief of neonatology at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, will discuss how the components of human breast milk help provide answers to these questions on Thursday, July 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Old Soul @ 40 Acres, 3434 Broadway in Sacramento.

The nation’s first and only fully integrated family medicine and obstetrics medical residency program recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Known as the UC Davis Family Medicine/Obstetrics (FMOB) Residency, the program trains doctors in the “whole family” approach of family medicine together with the intricacies of labor and delivery.

A new study published today in The American Journal of Pathologyfound that mice fed a high-fat, high-sugar Western diet developed hepatic inflammation, which was more common in males than females and most pronounced in mice that also lacked a bile acid receptor known as farnesoid x receptor, or FXR.

In a decisive move by the Governor and Legislature, the University of California Umbilical Cord Blood Collection Program (UCBCP) has been extended through 2022. The program enables mothers of newborns to donate their babies’ umbilical cord blood and have it publicly banked so it is available to anyone for lifesaving transplantations.

The Northern California chapter of Huntington’s Disease Society of American (HDSA) has honored UC Davis Health’s Lorin Scher for his outstanding service to the Huntington’s disease community in the Sacramento region.

Rosane Oliveira, founding director of the UC Davis Integrative Medicine Program, will speak about how diet can affect brain health at a free public lecture on July 20 at 6 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th Street in Sacramento.

Lydia Pleotis Howell, a national leader known for her work to improve women's health, will receive the American Society of Cytopathology’s most prestigious honor, the Papanicolaou Award, at the annual scientific meeting in Phoenix on Nov. 12.

Estella Mendoza of Dixon was 15 weeks pregnant in September 2016 when a routine blood test and an ultrasound examination detected a serious abnormality: her fetus had myelomeningocele, a form of spina bifida.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been ranked by U.S. News & World Reportamong the nation’s top hospitals in five pediatric subspecialties. UC Davis ranked 16th in neonatology, 23rd in nephrology, and 41st in diabetes and endocrinology. UC Davis Children's Hospital also ranked 18th in orthopaedics and 26th in urology, in collaboration with Shriners Hospital for Children – Northern California

The fifth annual Duck Dash will take place Saturday, Aug. 12, at 5 p.m. at Raging Waters Sacramento at Cal Expo. Proceeds will benefit the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

The UC Davis MIND Institute has received a 3-year, $1.4 million grant to study how to build a statewide network to improve use of evidence-based practices for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

Improvements to the fire and life-safety infrastructure for the East Wing of the hospital is set to begin July 10, 2017 and extend through November 2019. Work to improve the infrastructure will be done in phases throughout select areas of the East Wing, including corridors, stairways, rooftop mechanical spaces and patient floors.

The survival rate of U.S. gunshot victims has not shown a marked improvement, as other recent studies have suggested, according to new research from Duke University and the University of California, Davis.

In support and acknowledgement of the Crocker Art Museum’s work to benefit the community through art-based wellness programs, the Museum is pleased to announce it has been awarded a Hemera Foundation grant to bolster its efforts, and introduce a new, 3-week, introductory Artful Meditation course, starting June 25.

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital have confirmed that mice without the Shank3B protein model aspects of brain physiology and behavioral symptoms observed in people with autism. The findings confirm that Shank3B knockout mice provide a valuable research tool for future efforts to develop new therapies. The study, supported by Autism Speaks, was published in the journal Molecular Autism.

UC Davis pulmonary health and air quality experts offer advice for saving your breath during times of high heat and poor air quality, which can be extremely challenging for those with COPD, asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and other lung conditions.

Joshua Miller, professor and chair of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, will speak about the role vitamins can play in preventing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia at a free public lecture on June 29 at 6 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th Street in Sacramento.

The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — formerly known as “food stamps” — that helps low-income individuals and families purchase food is less likely to be used by farmworkers eligible for the benefit who are immigrants, Hispanic, male, childless or residing in California, new research from UC Davis health economists shows.

Despite evidence showing that the routine use of sonography in hospital emergency departments can safely improve care for adults when evaluating for possible abdominal trauma injuries, researchers at UC Davis Medical Center could not identify any significant improvements in care for pediatric trauma patients.

From preparing health workers for better emergency response and improving monitoring for those with hypertension to restoring dignity to homeless women and identifying mental health access for young victims of trauma, the scope of work undertaken by students at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis ranges from clinical to community, from birth to end of life.

Amori Mikami, associate professor and clinical psychologist at the University of British Columbia, will speak about ways to increase inclusion of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in peer groups at a free public lecture June 14 at 4:30 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento.

When Kristine Seraspi’s allergies advanced to include a cough, she weighed her options. Try to find time in her busy schedule to squeeze in an appointment with her primary care physician or check out UC Davis Health’s Virtual Clinic, a secure online diagnosis and treatment service that connects patients with practitioners on demand.

Researchers at UC Davis Health and other institutions have shown that gender differences in mice microbiota can modulate the risk of developing metabolic disease and liver cancer. In addition, the team found that a bile acid receptor protein, called FXR, has a profound impact on mouse microbiota and bile acid profiles and is differentially expressed based on gender. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

With its internationally renowned school of veterinary medicine and its NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, UC Davis is uniquely positioned to harness the power of each to tackle one of life’s greatest challenges: cancer.

David R. Gandara, professor and director of thoracic oncology at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been named a “Giant of Cancer Care” in lung cancer by OncLive in recognition of his work to advance the field of oncology through his contributions in research and clinical practice.

Using computed tomography (CT) to evaluate muscle health may help identify optimal treatments for older patients who fall and break their hips, a new study led by radiologists from UC Davis and Wake Forest Baptist medical centers has found.

May 2017

One of the challenges for families with a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is that hospitalizations can be very long and many families are unable to be at the bedside as much as they would like as they return to work and care for other children. UC Davis neonatologist Kristin Hoffman and IT technical supervisor George Wu have developed a program for parents to view their infants remotely when they were unable to be in the NICU.

UC Davis pulmonary rehabilitation patients performed pieces they learned through singing therapy on May 24 in the lobby of UC Davis Medical Center. The group, who call themselves “Rockin’ Rehab,” sang patriotic numbers in honor of Memorial Day in addition to old standards.

Charles DeCarli, director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, will speak about healthy brain aging at a free public lecture on May 25 at 6 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th Street in Sacramento.

UC Davis patients with COPD and other pulmonary diseases will perform pieces they learned through singing therapy, a creative approach to improving airflow in and out of the lungs. The group’s song list includes old standards and, in honor of Memorial Day, patriotic numbers.

Competitors in the third annual Sacramento Regional Donate Life Visual Arts Contest shared their winning poster and video entries and were recognized with cash prizes at a ceremony held May 11 at UC Davis Medical Center.

A pulmonary health researcher and an orthopaedic surgeon have received two of the UC Davis School of Medicine’s highest faculty honors — the Hibbard Williams Extraordinary Achievement Award and the C. John Tupper Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

An alliance of leading scientists, health professionals and children’s advocates known as Project TENDR has recommended new national goals for protecting American children from lead poisoning. In a viewpoint published today in JAMA Pediatrics, three alliance members chart a course for better safeguarding children from lead poisoning within five years and eliminating lead exposures by 2030.

On Mother’s Day last year, UC Davis cardiology patient Michelle Lasater received a heart transplant, ending an intense battle with pregnancy-related heart failure that began after giving birth to her daughter.

Cynthia Haq, professor of family medicine and population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, is a candidate for the position of chair of the UC Davis Health Department of Family and Community Medicine. She will present her vision for the department on May 16 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Education Building, Room 1204, at 4610 X St. in Sacramento.

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center launches its 2017 Community Engagement Learning Series, featuring UC Davis faculty and nationally-prominent researchers with expertise in the field of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researcher and child neurologist Mustafa Sahin will speak about the relationship between the genetic disease tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and autism in a free public lecture on May 17 at 4:30 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th Street in Sacramento.

UC Davis Medical Center will mark National Nurses Week 2017 with the annual Celebration of Nursing Excellence ceremony, Wednesday, May 10, at 11 a.m. at the Education Building. The celebration is open to all.

About 5,000 children are treated nationally inl emergency departments each year for window fall-related injuries. These falls and injuries tend to be more common during the spring and summer months, since people tend to open their windows during warm weather.

Peter Yellowlees, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences with an international reputation in telemedicine and the delivery of long distance health and education, has been named president of the American Telemedicine Association.

Reducing by half the typical amount of blood provided through transfusions to burn patients makes no difference in terms of patient outcomes, a new multi-center study led by UC Davis researchers shows.

Patients in California hospitals were more likely to die within 60 days of being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia – a cancer of the blood and bone marrow – if they were unmarried, lived in a less-affluent neighborhood or lacked health insurance. The UC Davis study also found that patients treated at a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center were more likely to survive.

Second cancers in children and adolescents and young adults (AYA) are far deadlier than they are in older adults and may partially account for the relatively poor outcomes of cancer patients ages 15-39 overall, a new study by UC Davis researchers has found.

Each April the UC Davis campus celebrates its much-beloved Picnic Day. This year, they're adding a new tradition -- UC Davis Give Day -- as a way to celebrate each other and the awesome community by giving to an area of UC Davis that is important to you.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis launches a new Family Caregiving Institute, dedicated to the well-being of those who care for others, with a $5 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The fragmentation between the technology and health care worlds took center stage last night at a Community Conversation presented by the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis: “Why is my Smartphone Personalized, but my Health Care is Not?”

The Specialty Pharmacy at UC Davis Health has been accredited through 2020 by URAC, an independent nonprofit organization and national leader in promoting health-care quality through accreditation, certification and measurement.

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month and UC Davis Health is hosting a Road Safety event on Friday, April 21 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will be held in the Education Building lobby, 4610 X Street, Sacramento.

Adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will be the topic of the next Minds behind the MIND lecture on April 19 at 5:30 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento. The lecture is free and open to the public.

April is Autism Awareness Month, and the UC Davis MIND Institute has several events planned to help increase understanding of and provide resources to families affected by the disorder. All events will be held at the MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento.

UC Davis Medical Center ranks among the 100 Great Hospitals in America 2017, a distinction by Becker's Hospital Review that recognizes excellence, leadership and innovation in the hospital and health-care industry. The Great Hospitals 2017 list appears online today.

In a new study published today in JCI Insight, UC Davis researchers have shown that combining high-intensity focused ultrasound with two immunotherapies (a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor and TLR9 agonist) can produce excellent response rates in mouse models of epithelial cancer. They also found that, for the combination to be effective, immunotherapies must come first.

Direct-to-consumer advertising for drugs to treat testosterone deficiency — or “low T” — increases prescriptions to men for hormone-replacement therapies but may not improve their health, UC Davis physician Richard Kravitz said in an editorial published in the March 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

UC Davis patients avoided millions of miles of driving — and their associated financial and environmental costs — by getting their clinical care via videoconferencing, a new study by the UC Davis School of Medicine has found.

The cardiologists, nurses and technicians of Sacramento’s first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) team celebrated a milestone on March 6. For five years, they have provided a minimally invasive treatment option to patients with aortic valve stenosis.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Davis School of Medicine among America's best medical schools for the quality of its educational programs in primary care and research. The annual listing appears today on the news magazine’s website and will be published in its guidebook, “America's Best Graduate Schools 2018.”

UC Davis emergency medicine researchers have been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute) to investigate the safety and efficacy of a drug known to stop bleeding in injured adults for use in cases of pediatric trauma.

U.S. News & World Report names the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis among the nation’s best for master’s-degree nursing programs in the 2018 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools.

An international team of reseachers led by Thomas Borén at Umeå University and including Jay Solnick, professor internal medicine at UC Davis, has discovered the tmechanism that gives the bacteria such staying-power and ability to cause chronic infection.

The University of California Biomedical Research Acceleration, Integration, and Development program (UC BRAID) and Stanford University have formed an alliance to combine resources and develop a coordinated approach to research targeting the health of Californians – a partnership that can serve as a model for collaborations throughout the country.

With a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), UC Davis and Boston University will focus on establishing partnerships with industry, academe and government that lead to the development of innovative biophotonic technologies for use in medicine and other scientific disciplines.

Researchers from the UC Davis MIND Institute, University of North Carolina (UNC) and other institutions have found that altered distribution of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in high-risk infants can predict whether they will develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study appears today in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Disagreements between doctors and patients over the priorities of pain treatment are common during primary care office visits, new research from UC Davis Health shows. Patients hope to reduce pain intensity and identify the cause, while physicians aim to improve physical function and reduce medication side effects, including dependency.

The University of California, Davis, has reached a licensing agreement with Regenerative Arthritis and Bone Medicine (RABOME) for a class of drugs developed at the university that hold potential for treating diseases associated with bone loss and inflammatory arthritis.

Professor and researcher Theo Palmer will speak about the relationship between maternal illness and autism genes in a free public lecture on March 8 at 4:30 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th Street in Sacramento.

Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, will speak on “Lessons Learned from the Affordable Care Act Implementation in California” as UC Davis Health’s 2017 Snively Visiting Professor in Family and Community Medicine.

The newest member of the UC Davis cardiothoracic surgery team — Paul Perry — was also the newest presenter at this year’s Women’s Heart Care Forum, an annual event designed to empower women to take charge of their heart health.

February 2017

Fereydoun Hormozdiari, an early-career UC Davis scientist, has been named a 2017 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Computational & Evolutionary Molecular Biology. He is one of 126 scholars to receive the prestigious award, which comes with $60,000 over two years to conduct leading-edge research.

Aubyn Stahmer, director of community-based treatment research at the UC Davis MIND Institute, has received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study different ways to support training to providers who treat children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Professor Lee L.Q. Pu has published the first comprehensive text on the variety of ways that flaps — or patches of tissue taken from one part of the body to repair another — can be effectively used in reconstructive plastic surgery.

Michael Laposata, a national expert on laboratory quality, including the better use of diagnostic tests and a focus on reducing errors, will deliver the 2017 Benjamin Highman Lecture on “Medical Errors: The Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.” The talk is Thursday, March 2, from 5 until 6 p.m. in the Education Building second floor auditorium, 4610 X Street, Sacramento. A reception follows in the lobby at 6 p.m. Register for the event on Eventbrite.

First Tech Federal Credit Union presented a $100,000 donation to UC Davis Children’s Hospital on February 1, 2017, with the donation specifically benefiting the new Children’s Surgery Center, scheduled to open in 2018.

In two recent studies, researchers at UC Davis have shown that the placenta can provide critical information about early changes to the intra-uterine environment that may influence fetal development and ultimately, children’s brains.

UC Davis MIND Institute researchers Julie Schweitzer, Murat Pakyurek and Faye Dixon will speak on “Living with ADHD as an Adult: Updates on Research, Diagnosis and Treatment” on Feb. 22 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento.

Jill Joseph, a physician and professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, was recently named chair of the Institutional Development Awards (IDeA) Program States Pediatric Clinical Trials Network. Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the seven-year, multimillion-dollar research initiative aims to investigate innovative therapies to give children the highest probability of achieving the best health outcomes over their lifetimes.

Vice Chancellor of Human Health Sciences and School of Medicine Dean Julie Freischlag will depart UC Davis Health at the end of April to take a new job as president and chief executive officer at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Wild Bill’s 16th annual Tattoo-a-thon will take place on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 8 a.m. to midnight. Thirty tattoo artists have volunteered to work 16 hours during this year’s event and all proceeds – including tips – will be donated to UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

Amparo Villablanca, a nationally renowned specialist on heart disease in women, will provide a free lunchtime address on “Heart Disease: What Every Woman Should Know.” The lecture is open to the public and takes place Wednesday, Feb. 15, from 12:10 p.m. until 12:50 p.m. in room 1204 of the Education Building, 4610 X Street in Sacramento. RSVPs are requested via email to Angela Carrasco at avcarrasco@ucdavis.edu.

Language barriers may hinder U.S. kidney transplant candidates’ access to kidney transplantation, according to a new study in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Led by a team from Cedars-Sinai, UCLA Health and UC Davis Health, the research suggests that patients who primarily speak a language other than English may face disparities that keep them from completing their kidney transplant evaluations and, ultimately, from receiving a transplant.

Older adults who live in poor and violent urban neighborhoods are at greater risk for depression, a study by researchers from UC Davis, the University of Minnesota and other institutions published Jan. 23 in the journal Health & Place has found.

UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department will continue to train individuals to become certified child life specialists at UC Davis Children's Hospital, thanks to this year’s donation by Spirit Halloween Superstores.

UC Davis physicians gave lifesaving kidney transplants to more than 400 people in 2016, making it the highest-volume kidney transplant program in the nation. In addition to the growth, outcomes for UC Davis kidney transplant program patients have consistently exceeded the national average.

UC Davis physician researchers have found that medical marijuana contains multiple bacterial and fungal pathogens that may cause serious and even fatal infections. They warn that smoking, vaping or inhaling aerosolized marijuana could pose a grave risk to patients, especially those with leukemia, lymphoma, AIDS or conditions requiring immune-suppressing therapies.

Researchers from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego received a $2.8 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) for a three-year study on the effectiveness of two different therapies for children with Kawasaki disease, as well as the burdens of treatments on those children and their families.

UC Davis faculty are available throughout American Heart Month in February for interviews on the detection, treatment and prevention of heart and vascular disease. They can also discuss groundbreaking research that is leading to new methods of addressing common heart conditions, including heart failure, arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, valve disease, congenital conditions and coronary artery disease.

Among individuals who legally purchased handguns in California, prior convictions for driving under the influence (DUI) and other alcohol-related crimes were associated with a substantial increase in risk for subsequent violent or firearm-related crime, according to a study published Jan. 30 in Injury Prevention by the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.

The UC Davis Bariatric Surgery Program fashion show will spotlight 13 patients who dropped a total of more than 1,600 pounds following surgical weight-loss procedures. During the event, called “An Evening of the Stars,” the models will share brief personal stories and photos from their battles with extreme weight, and then walk a stage wearing the latest fashions from local clothing stores.

UC Davis MIND Institute researchers Tony Simon and Peter Mundy will speak on “Gaming Research: How it’s helping children with neurodevelopmental disorders” on Jan. 25 from 5:30-7 p.m. at the MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento.

A large team of researchers from UC Davis and several European and Latin American institutions have identified genetic variations that contribute to familial gastric cancer. These inherited mutations, which affect the PALB2, BRCA1 and RAD51C genes and have been implicated in other cancer types, impair a critical DNA repair mechanism called homologous recombination. These findings could improve preventive care, as well as provide targets for new therapies. The study was published last month in the journal Gastroenterology.

A national study by researchers at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center has found that a significant number of lung cancer patients are not receiving treatment. Based on data between 1998 and 2012 from the National Cancer Database, 21 percent of patients (190,539) with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) received no specific cancer treatment, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. Many of the untreated patients were women, elderly, minorities, low income and uninsured.

Today, UC Davis Health System officially becomes UC Davis Health. University officials say the name change better captures the health system’s overall institutional focus, which is to serve the health and well-being of its patients and community.

The UC Davis-based EXPLORER consortium, which aims to build a revolutionary total-body PET (positron emission tomography) scanner, has announced the selection of two industry partners to help build the prototype device. They are United Imaging Healthcare America, a North American subsidiary of Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare, and SensL Technologies of Cork, Ireland.

The UC Davis Hospice Program and UC Davis Children's Hospital Bereavement Program will offer an eight-week Young Adult Bereavement Art Group for individuals ages 17 to 24 who are coping with the recent loss of a loved one.

Interest in endurance sports such as long-distance running is growing, and finishing a marathon is likely on many New Year’s resolution lists for 2017. UC Davis sports medicine specialist Brandee Waite offers tips for safely running your first — or next — marathon.

In a study that could have significant impact on how disease outbreaks are managed, researchers at UC Davis and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) have sequenced and analyzed genomes from Shigella sonnei (S. sonnei) bacteria associated with major shigellosis outbreaks in California in 2014 and 2015.

New York Times bestselling author and autism advocate John Elder Robison will speak on “Life with Autism” in a free public lecture on Jan. 11 at 4:30 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. in Sacramento.

Marijuana use significantly increased and its perceived harm decreased among eighth- and 10th-graders in Washington state following enactment of recreational marijuana laws, according to a UC Davis and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health to be published online in JAMA Pediatrics. There was no change in use or perceived harm among 12th graders or among similar grades in Colorado.

In a study that could have significant impact on how disease outbreaks are managed, researchers at UC Davis and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) have sequenced and analyzed genomes from Shigella sonnei (S. sonnei) bacteria associated with major shigellosis outbreaks in California in 2014 and 2015.

Factors such as advanced age and greater aerobic capacity increase the likelihood that exercise will work as a treatment for depression in elderly patients, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society has shown.

UC Davis Health System has been awarded a grant by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) to pilot a first-of-its-kind diversity and inclusion toolkit. The three-year, $36,000 award aims to enable universities and their academic and health centers to measure institutional climate and culture.

The UC Davis MIND Institute and Rush University Medical Center have been awarded $11.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to test a new therapy designed to improve language learning for children fragile X syndrome.

Results of a UC-wide venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention program, led by Gregory Maynard, chief quality officer for UC Davis Medical Center, have shown a significant reduction in hospital-associated VTEs at all five participating UC hospitals, according to a recently released study authored by Maynard and published in the December 2016 issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has joined ImproveCareNow, a network of care centers where clinicians, researchers, patients and parents work together to help care for kids with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Strokes and heart attacks are rare for women with diabetes who use hormonal contraception, with the safest options being intrauterine devices (IUDs) and under-the-skin implants, new research published in Diabetes Care shows.

Researchers at UC Davis have shown that a well-known neurotoxin (PCB 95) and a chromosomal duplication (Dup15q) have a profound impact on DNA methylation, the epigenetic process that can influence gene activity. These cumulative genetic and environmental “hits” alter the epigenetic landscape during development, altering genes linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.

We know that exercise is good for you. But why, and how? The National Institutes of Health today (Dec. 13) announced a six-year, $170 million nationwide project to dig deep into the molecular changes that come from physical activity, and how they influence health.

Greater weight increases the likelihood of hot flashes and night sweats during early stages of the menopause transition but reduces those symptoms throughout menopause and beyond, new UC Davis research published in the journal Menopause shows.

Melissa Barnett, principal optometrist at the UC Davis Eye Center, received the Mentoring Award from the Women in Optometry association. She is one of six optometrists recognized for excellence in leadership, mentorship and education, and innovation.

Can lifestyle changes help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia? John Olichney, UC Davis professor of neurology and a behavioral neurologist, will address the question at a public lecture Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek.

For the first time, researchers have found higher levels of Gram-negative bacteria antigens in brain samples from late-onset Alzheimer’s disease patients. Compared to controls, patients with Alzheimer's had much higher levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and E coli K99 pili protein. In addition, The UC Davis team also found LPS molecules congregated with amyloid plaques, which have been linked to Alzheimer’s pathology and progression. The research was published today in the print edition of the journal Neurology.

Black infants had over twice the deaths of whites attributable to lack of optimal breastfeeding, a new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics shows. Black infants also had over three times the rate of necrotizing enterocolitis, a devastating disease of preterm infants, attributable to suboptimal rates of feeding with their mother’s own milk.

To make the donation of toys and other gifts easier for generous businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals who would like to make the season brighter for hospitalized children, UC Davis is offering donors the opportunity to drive up and drop off donations for the holidays.

Jacquelyn Conway, a mother who enjoys taking long walks and cooking organic meals, was told she had invasive breast cancer In August 2012. That began an arduous series of cancer treatments starting with chemotherapy – and a determined approach to survival.

Ernest E. Tschannen, whose historic $38.5 million total gift to UC Davis will transform eye care in the Sacramento region and beyond for generations to come, today received the Outstanding Benefactor award from the California Capital Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

A UC Davis-led team has been awarded a $1.2 million grant from California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM) to explore the use of personalized mobile health data to improve chronic disease management and care.

Faculty and researchers at UC Davis combine perspectives on pain to change how the phenomenon is alleviated, studied and taught. From the upcoming 2016 Advancing Pain Relief Summit to a recent gathering in Japan of pain experts from around the world, UC Davis drives the discussion aimed at improving quality of life.

Bennet Omalu, associate clinical professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UC Davis Health System, received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Medical Association for his groundbreaking work on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) on Saturday at the 2016 AMA Interim Meeting, in Orlando, Fla.

Knowing how to use antibiotics safely and appropriately empowers everyone to be a part of the solution to preserve the life-saving power of antibiotics, according to Larissa May, associate professor of emergency medicine at UC Davis Medical Center and a national expert on antibiotic stewardship.

Researchers from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis were awarded $600,000 from the Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation Innovations in Care Program for their collaboration with faith-based organizations in Alameda County that address advanced illness care disparities through the Alameda County Care Alliance (ACCA) Advanced Illness Care Program.

UC Davis Children's Hospital patients will be invited to play games, in support of Extra Life, a Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals program. The event gives hospitalized children a chance for some fun and to try gaming technology, including a VR (virtual reality) headset.

Local gamers of all levels and from all categories — console, mobile, PC, table-top, etc. — are uniting for one cause on Saturday, November 5: to save and improve the lives of kids treated at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Extra Life, a Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals) fundraising program, provides game-loving locals a fun way to support UC Davis Children’s Hospital, the local CMN Hospital.

October 2016

Sam's Club on Power Inn Road in Sacramento was named the No. 1 Sam's Club store in the country for the second year in a row, raising the most money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals during its 2016 Miracle Balloon campaign, which ran Aug. 29 through Oct. 16. The store raised $66,367.99 with proceeds staying locally and benefitting UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

Two physician assistant graduate students at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis each received a two-year, full scholarship from the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) to pursue their passion to become primary care providers and join a community of clinicians with a shared desire to serve people with limited access to health care.

UC Davis Children's Hospital’s Halloween celebration took place today on the pediatrics unit. Patients and staff got into the Halloween spirit with costumes, games and trick-or-treating. on the unit. The special event was made possible by the Davis 7 pediatric nurses and the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department.

The UC Davis CAARE Center has been awarded a $1.6 million grant by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA) to provide mental health services to all newly placed foster children throughout Sacramento County for the next five years.

One of the major unsolved mysteries in neuroscience is how synapses are eliminated in the brain during normal development. This pruning process is required for precise brain wiring, but what drives the elimination of specific synapses remains unclear. Neuroscientist Beth Stevens will explore her recent research, which revealed a key role for microglia in synaptic pruning in a free public lecture at the UC Davis MIND Institute on Nov. 9. at 4:30 p.m.

Patients with disseminated advanced cancer who undergo surgery are far more likely to endure long hospital stays and readmissions, referrals to extended care facilities and death, UC Davis researchers have found.

New research, published in an abstract authored by Yunru Huang, a Ph.D. candidate in epidemiology at University of California, Davis, shows children seen in emergency departments who don't have insurance, or who have public Medicaid coverage, are significantly more likely to be transferred to another facility than children with private insurance.

The 2016-2017 Minds Behind the MIND lecture series resumes this month with a Spanish-speaking workshop for families and educators entitled “Ingredients for a healthy relationship-based society: How do we identify, talk about and manage emotions in the context of a disability?”

Two UC Davis researchers have received grants totaling $1.6 million to advance their work to find an effective treatment for Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that causes seizures and sleep disturbances and inhibits language development.

J. Nilas Young, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at UC Davis, has received a 2016 American College of Surgeons/Pfizer International Volunteerism Award for his work in developing heart surgery programs in Russia and South America. Young received the award, the highest honor for fellows of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) who provide volunteer care to medically underserved populations, on Oct. 18 at the ACS Clinical Congress in Washington, D.C.

Neu5Gc, a non-human sialic acid sugar molecule common in red meat that increases the risk of tumor formation in humans, is also prevalent in pig organs, with concentrations increasing as the organs are cooked, a study by researchers from the UC Davis School of Medicine and Xiamen University School of Medicine has found.

Young adults dealing with the effects of cancer are invited to attend Pushing Past Cancer, a free day of education and motivation, on Saturday, Nov. 5, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the UC Davis Sacramento campus. The event is open to cancer patients ages 18-40, their support persons and medical professionals.

John Morrison, professor of neurology at the University of California, Davis, and director of the California National Primate Research Center, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific bodies.

When a family member or loved one is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, caregivers are thrust into a new world of responsibility, often without training or experience. It’s important for caregivers to learn to navigate their new world and become familiar with housing options, community resources and common behaviors.

This year’s free Diagnostic Symposium, sponsored by the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, features insights into common diagnostic dilemmas in renal and transplant pathology by UC San Francisco and UC Davis specialists beginning at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21 in the Medical Education Building, Room 2222.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has named the California Precision Medicine Consortium as a regional medical center group in the national network of health care provider organizations that will implement the Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program.

Researchers at UC Davis and the Xiamen University School of Medicine have found that a dangerous family of molecules called sialic acids (SIAs) are prevalent in piglet organs, with concentrations increasing as the organs are cooked. Of particular concern, a SIA called Neu5Gc was prevalent in piglet spleens and lungs. SIAs have been linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease and inflammation. The research was published in the Glycoconjugate Journal Sept. 9.

While aging is inevitable, most people want to maintain their brain power including memory, reading comprehension and cognitive skills. But like most organs in the body, by the mid-40s brains suffer a measureable decline, which can affect memory and reasoning, and many people develop age-related brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Christi DeLemos, a nurse practitioner in the UC Davis Department of Neurological Surgery, has been recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center with a 2016 National Magnet Nurse of the Year award.

Rachel Russo, a resident in the UC Davis Department of Surgery, has been selected as the 2016 Elks National Foundation Scholarship Programs Alum of the Year for her commitment to community service and inspiring others.

In death as in life, former UC Davis School of Medicine Dean Hibbard E. Williams’ commitment to mentoring and advancing the career of the next generation of medical leaders lives on. Williams, who passed away at home on July 26 at age 83, will be honored by friends and colleagues — past and present — at a special Celebration of Life in Davis on Oct. 15.

Of the 10 million prescriptions for antibiotics that emergency department physicians in the U.S. write each year, many are prescribed for known viral infections such as acute bronchitis and upper respiratory infections, which do not respond to antibiotics. A one-year study at UC Davis Medical Center funded with a grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and preserve the microbe-fighting power of antibiotics.

Ulfat Shaikh, professor of pediatrics and director of healthcare quality at UC Davis School of Medicine, was accepted as a member of Cohort 16 of the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) Health Care Leadership Program.

More than 80 people attended the 4th annual Cancer Care Network Symposium Saturday at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center auditorium to explore key topics in cancer care, including the new End of Life Option Act.

The 30-day window for hospital readmissions — used by the federal government to penalize hospitals believed to provide lower-quality care because patients return to the hospital following discharge — should be reduced to a week or less to more accurately measure factors within a hospital’s control, new research from UC Davis has found.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital this week launched its Patient Stories blog. These stories highlight the care and support provided by the Children's Hospital team, as shared by pediatric patients, their families and staff.

Neurosurgeons at UC Davis Health System have enrolled the first patient in a study that will determine if a new investigational treatment can safely and effectively improve motor function following acute traumatic cervical spinal cord injury.

September 2016

Nancy Lane, endowed professor of medicine, rheumatology and aging, and director of the UC Davis Center for Musculoskeletal Health, has been honored by the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) with its 2016 inaugural Steven M. Krane Award for her clinical research focused on osteoporosis and bone biology in patients with rheumatic diseases.

Breastfeeding as recommended — for a total of one year and exclusively for six months — could protect moms as well as their babies from premature death and serious diseases and save more than $4.3 billion in health care and related costs, according to a new study published online in Maternal & Child Nutrition.

Preventing skin scarring with red light-emitting diodes and using small molecules in the breath to detect infections are just two of several innovative projects developed at UC Davis Health System that are moving closer to becoming new treatments and tools for improving patient care, thanks to the mentored research programs of the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) and the Emergency Medicine K12 program.

UC Davis’ first home football game on Sept. 10 featured a unique member of an on-field medical team: neurosurgeon Kia Shahlaie. While sports medicine or orthopaedics specialists are often on college football sidelines, UC Davis is the only university in its conference to include brain experts, too. This is the second season the university has provided this level of medical care for its team.

Connor Dean Grant, an undergraduate student in the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences, has been selected to receive the 2016 UC Davis Section of General Thoracic Surgery/Core Mobile Inc. Patient Engagement Scholarship.

The UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center Community Engagement lecture featuring Denise Park of the University of Texas has been canceled for this evening, Thursday, Sept. 22, at 6 p.m., at the UC Davis MIND Institute. Dr. Park's lecture will be rescheduled in the future.

HIMSS Analytics, the research arm of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, will present UC Davis with a special Commitment to Health IT Award at a Sept. 26 event at UC Davis Medical Center. The presentation will be held in conjunction with National Health IT Week, which runs from Sept. 26-30.

Kit Lam, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, has been appointed to the National Cancer Institute’s Basic Science Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC).

Four doctoral students at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis each received a $10,000 scholarship from the Jonas Nurse Leader Scholar Program to pursue their passion to teach new nurses.

Why do some foodborne bacteria make us sick? A paper published Sept. 16 in the journal Science has found that pathogens in the intestinal tract cause harm because they benefit from immune system responses designed to repair the very damage to the intestinal lining caused by the bacteria in the first place.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis welcomed 33 graduate students Thursday at a ceremony to mark the beginning of their Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Degree Programs. Faculty welcomed eight students embarking upon a four-year journey to earn Doctor of Philosophy degrees and 25 nurses pursuing master’s degrees in leadership.

Ladson Hinton, a UC Davis specialist in geriatric psychiatry, has received a two-year, $370,000 grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) to adapt an Alzheimer’s caregivers program for use in Vietnam.

About one-third of 1,751 genes studied in the first comprehensive survey of the mouse genome are essential to life, according to research by an international collaboration including the University of California, Davis, Mouse Biology Program. Mutations of these genes cause death at the embryo stage. Many of them have counterparts in the human genome, so understanding why these genes are so vital could help prioritize human genes for study.

The University of California, Davis, has been awarded $29,290,259 from the National Institutes of Health under the next five-year phase of the Knockout Mouse Project. UC Davis is the lead organization in a consortium involving research partners at The Center for Phenogenomics in Toronto, Canada, the Childrens’ Hospital Oakland Research Institute and Charles River Laboratories in Wilmington, Mass.

UC Davis Health System’s Women in Medicine and Health Sciences Program, led by Amparo Villablanca, has been awarded the Group on Women in Medicine and Science Leadership Award by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The National Cancer Institute has again funded the K12 Paul Calabresi Clinical Oncology Training Grant to promote and sustain the development of young cancer scientists from diverse fields and from laboratories and clinics across both UC Davis campuses.

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute have found that a battery of tests appears to have strong potential for measuring cognitive changes over time for people with intellectual disabilities. The work could open new doors to research into whether drugs and specialized educational programs or treatments can improve function in people with Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome and other causes of intellectual disabilities.

When children are scheduled to have a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computerized axial tomography (CT) scan, it can be a scary procedure. But thanks to the miniature wooden MRI and CT models, donated by the Sacramento Area Woodworkers, children are now able to play using these wooden toy models and familiarize themselves with what will happen during these procedures.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has become the first hospital on the West Coast, and only the fourth in the nation, to earn verification as a Level I Children’s Surgery Center by the American College of Surgeons (ACS). The designation from the ACS Children’s Surgery Verification Quality Improvement Program focuses on the nation’s first and only multi-specialty standards of surgical care for pediatric patients.

Just like financial planning, there are things that can be done now to to protect your health in the future. UC Davis Sports Medicine experts are hosting a free seminar on daily exercise and lifestyle changes that can be easily done during your 40s, 50s and 60s to remain vibrant, active and independent in your 70s and beyond.

August 2016

A new report from the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) shows the impact of cancer screening over the past 15 years, identifying areas where increased screening and other cancer-control efforts would save lives and significantly benefit population health.

Entravision and Children’s Miracle Network at UC Davis announced that more than $221,000 was raised for UC Davis Children’s Hospital during its 72-hour Radiothon this month. Sacramento was the third highest fundraising market for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals nationally.

The UC Davis Hospice Program and UC Davis Children's Hospital Bereavement Program will offer an eight-week Young Adult Bereavement Art Group for individuals 17 to 24 who are coping with the recent loss of a loved one.

University of California President Janet Napolitano today announced her intent to establish the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis’ Sacramento campus under the direction of Garen Wintemute, an emergency department physician and recognized authority on the epidemiology of firearm violence who has conducted leading-edge research for more than 30 years.

Hmong Americans are more likely to understand the importance of colorectal cancer screening and to get screened when they’re provided information by specially trained Hmong lay health educators, new research from UC Davis has found.

Treatment with sertraline may provide nominal but important improvements in cognition and social participation in very young children with fragile X syndrome, the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability and the leading single-gene cause of autism, a study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found.

Physicians from Children’s Hospital of Michigan, UC Davis Medical Center and Nationwide Children's Hospital, in collaboration with 19 other pediatric emergency departments around the country, have established a “proof of principle” for measuring patterns of ribonucleic acid (RNA) expression in the bloodstream that can enable clinicians to distinguish bacterial infections from other causes of fever in infants up to two months old.

Michael LaCombe, a cardiologist with Maine General Medical Center and leader in the narrative movement in medicine, will speak on the power of stories in the practice of medicine as the UC Davis School of Medicine’s 2016 Nelson Lecturer in the Humanities.

After a 19-hour Children's Miracle Network Hospitals®mediathon on ABC10 KXTV, the final tallies are in. Mediathon viewers and partners raised $460,500 for UC Davis Children's Hospital, the local Children's Miracle Network Hospital in Sacramento - an increase of 67 percent from last year's mediathon total.

Sudha Seshadri, a Boston University neurologist who specializes in identifying the genomic and environmental risk factors of Alzheimer’s disease, will give a presentation titled “How Will Precision Medicine Influence the Prevention and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease.” The lecture is Thursday, Aug. 25, from 6 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the UC Davis MIND Institute auditorium, located at 2825 50th St. in Sacramento.

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded $2 million to David Greenhalgh, a UC Davis surgeon and national leader in treating burn injuries, for a study of the outcomes of a fluid resuscitation treatment for burn patients.

Colorectal cancer incidence and mortality rates in California have decreased markedly for men and women in all major racial-ethnic groups since 1990, except for Hispanic men. Colorectal cancer rates for Hispanic men have remained relatively the same, a disparity that can be improved by greater screening, a study of colorectal cancer trends from the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) finds.

The UC Davis Injury and Trauma Prevention Program has received a $202,309 donation from Kohl’sto support its child and adolescent injury prevention efforts in the Sacramento area. Kohl’s will formally present the donation at the ABC10 Give4Kids mediathon on Friday, Aug. 12 at 11 a.m. Since 2005, Kohl’s has donated more than $2.4 million to UC Davis Children’s Hospital to support its children’s health initiatives.

Two physician scientists received seed funding from the UC Davis Office of Research’s Science Translation and Innovative Research (STAIR) program to help them demonstrate proof-of-concept and commercial feasibility of their innovative technologies, which aim to address unmet market needs.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation and Movember, the global charity that has raised hundreds of millions for men’s health research and programs, have delivered $1 million to UC Davis prostate cancer researchers.

Four cutting-edge studies, including one led by John Olichney, professor and neurologist at the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, will each receive $1 million to advance current Alzheimer's research to the next stage of clinical trials. A unique, goal-driven competition offers an additional $3 million to the clinical trial that demonstrates the most promise for treating this devastating disease.

Regina Gandour-Edwards, a UC Davis surgical pathologist with expertise in diagnosing genitourinary tumors such as prostate and bladder cancer and training the next generation of physicians, is one of 14 specialists participating in an innovative telepathology program that is giving patients in underserved areas of sub-Saharan Africa and Haiti access to rapid cancer diagnostics, care and treatment.

U.S. News & World Report, which annually recognizes hospitals that excel in treating patients with serious and challenging injuries and illnesses, has again ranked UC Davis Medical Center as one of the nation's best hospitals.

July 2016

Hibbard E. Williams, an endocrinologist and internationally respected expert on kidney stone disease who served as UC Davis School of Medicine’s second dean from 1980 through 1992, died in his home in Davis July 26 after a battle with Lewy Body Disease. He was 83.

Researchers at UC Davis and Ionis Pharmaceuticals have developed a hybrid treatment that harnesses a monoclonal antibody to deliver antisense DNA to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells and that may lead to less toxic treatments for the disease.

UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department will be collecting art supplies and toy donations at the Sacramento Republic FC match vs. San Antonio FC at Bonney Field taking place on Aug. 6. Kickoff is 8 p.m.

The UC Davis MIND Institute kicks off its 2016-2017 Distinguished Lecturer Series in September with an address by Robert H. Ring, associate professor at Drexel University in the College of Medicine, Department of Pharmacology and Physiology.

The fourth annual Duck Dash will take place Saturday, Aug. 13, at 5 p.m. at Raging Waters Sacramento at Cal Expo. For the first time, proceeds will benefit the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

The federal Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded UC Davis School of Medicine two new grants, totaling more than $6 million, to further the school’s long-standing goal of expanding health care access and equity for all.

Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Clinical Professor Elizabeth Rice was selected as one of 40 nurse faculty nationwide to be a 2016 American Association Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Leadership for Academic Nursing Program Fellow.

UC Davis School of Medicine’s first-ever Daniel T. O’Connor, M.D., Memorial Research Grant, has been awarded to Anand Narayanan, a fourth-year student who will spend the coming year investigating nanoparticles to improve the delivery and targeting of therapies for oral cancer.

As part of its commitment to developing the new generation of environmental scientists, the UC Davis Environmental Health Sciences Center has funded eight innovative research projects aimed at defining the links between toxicants and human health.

Cardiologists at UC Davis Health System have treated the first patient in Northern California with a new bioresorbable stent. The Absorb vascular scaffold works like a traditional metal stent in opening vessels clogged by fatty deposits. Instead of remaining in the vessel for a lifetime, however, it is made of material similar to dissolving sutures and disappears within three years.

The state stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), today approved a $1.1 million grant to UC Davis for research aimed at developing a treatment for Angelman syndrome, a rare, neurogenetic autism-spectrum disorder that occurs in one in 15,000 live births.

The play area in the pediatric infusion center is buzzing with activity. Kids are building, coloring, reading and, most importantly, laughing. Not just patients, but parents and siblings, too. The play area isn’t just a haphazard jumble of donated toys and books, it’s a space specially designed by the cancer center’s resident child life specialist and expert on fun, Ellen Meuchel.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis and the UC Davis School of Medicine received a $2.49 million Primary Care Training Enhancement Award from Health Resources and Services Administration to improve primary care education and training.

Capitalizing on experimental genetic techniques, researchers at UC Davis’ California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) have demonstrated that temporarily turning off an area of the brain changes patterns of activity across much of the remaining brain.

UC Davis researchers have found a way to get MRI images of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability without sedating them first using the principles of applied behavior analysis.

Adding to its growing portfolio of important federal grants to address the needs of people with developmental disabilities, the UC Davis MIND Institute, in collaboration with California State University Sacramento, has been awarded $2.7 million, to be spent over five years, to train professionals and family members who care for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

On Miracle Treat Day, July 28, Dairy Queen’s Fruitridge and Douglas Boulevard locations in Sacramento, along with thousands of other locations across the United States, will donate one dollar or more from every Blizzard Treat sold to benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Funds raised locally help provide life-saving equipment and vital patient care services to the kids and families at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

Patients with stage III or IV cancer report far more optimistic expectations for survival than their oncologists thought they had communicated, according to new research published today in JAMA Oncology. Effective communication between doctors and their patients who could be nearing the end of their lives is crucial, according to the authors, since this is when quality-of-life decisions merge with discussions about treatment options.

Physical exams conducted from the 1960s through the 1980s will be revisited to evaluate risks and protective factors in early and midlife that could affect brain health and dementia diagnoses among a large, ethnically diverse group of seniors. The Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research will partner with the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center for the study, which is funded with a five-year, $13 million grant from the National Institute on Aging.

The emotional debate around minimum wage levels focuses entirely on economics and overlooks the fact that increasing minimum wages can improve health, according to an editorial by UC Davis health economist Paul Leigh published in the American Journal of Public Health.l

The UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) and the wide array of services that have supported innovative biomedical research and led to the development of new treatments for diseases during the past 10 years will continue, thanks to a $27.8 million grant from the National Center for Accelerating Translational Science and the ongoing support from the School of Medicine.

UC Davis Diabetes Summer Camp kicks off this week, providing friendship, fun and diabetes education for patients battling Type I Diabetes. Activities at the summer camp include rock climbing, swimming, field games and T-shirt print designing. UC Davis Children's Hospital physicians and nurses -- many of whom also have Type I Diabetes -- will be assisting at the summer camp.

Nancy Rodriguez, a second-year UC Davis medical student, has been honored by the American Medical Association Foundation with one of its prestigious 2016 Minority Scholars awards. She is one of only 20 students nationwide to receive the honor.

Joel Kramer, clinical neuropsychologist who has specialized in the study of cognition and behavior for over three decades, will kick off the 2016 Community Discovery Lecture Series with a talk entitled, "The Myth of Cognitive Decline: Optimizing Brain Health as We Age," on July 12 from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek, Calif.

The London-based LouLou Foundation, in partnership with the Orphan Disease Center of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has awarded a grant to UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures Director Jan Nolta and one of the institute’s post-doctoral fellows, Kyle Fink, to study how Fink’s gene editing techniques might be used to treat a rare genetic disorder that hits children – mainly girls – at a very young age with difficult-to-control seizures and severe neuro-developmental impairment.

Bennet Omalu, associate clinical professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UC Davis and chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County, Calif., received two awards for his work on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative condition that he first identified in professional football players.

An unprecedented alliance of leading scientists, health professionals, and children’s and environmental health advocates agree for the first time that today’s scientific evidence supports a link between exposures to toxic chemicals in air, water, food and everyday products and children’s risks for neurodevelopmental disorders.

The Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (CEDD) at the UC Davis MIND Institute has received a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities grant award from the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis formally welcomed the largest incoming class in the school’s history, including 24 students in the school’s newest degree program, the Master’s Entry in Nursing Program. Members of the Classes of 2018 include 18 registered nurses working toward a master’s-degree as nurse practitioners and 65 future physician assistants.

Certain premenstrual symptoms, such as mood changes, breast pain and abdominal cramps, are linked with inflammation, but headache is not, according to new research from UC Davis Health System. Published in the current issue of the Journal of Women’s Health, the results suggest that anti-inflammatory medications may be appropriate for some but not all symptoms associated with menstruation.

Research has long shown that parent-implemented “naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions,” which are applied in a child’s usual setting and designed to build developmentally appropriate skills, help decrease the main symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, parent training by community providers had not previously been studied.

A new study by investigators at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Genentech, the National Institutes of Health and UC Davis Eye Center has found that 9.6 million U.S. adults are highly myopic, or severely nearsighted, and of those, nearly 820,000 have a degenerative form of the disease and more than 41,000 suffer myopic choroidal neovascularization, a complication that can cause long-term vision loss, especially in women.

A UC Davis researcher has created a video game for children who experience cognitive impairments from genetic disorders with the hope that that it will improve their ability to mentally process information about space and time.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been ranked by U.S. News & World Reportamong the nation’s top hospitals in five pediatric subspecialties. UC Davis ranked 19th in neonatology, 29th in diabetes and endocrinology and 43rd in nephrology. UC Davis Children's Hospital also ranked 32nd in urology and 38th in orthopaedics, in collaboration with Shriners Hospital for Children – Northern California

Mothers of children with autism who were diagnosed with metabolic conditions during pregnancy, particularly gestational and type 2 diabetes, were more likely to have anti-fetal brain autoantibodies in their blood compared to healthy women of children with autism. The presence of these anti-fetal brain autoantibodies has been previously found to be specific to some mothers of children with autism and rare among mothers of children without autism, researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute have found.

Research led by Andreas Bäumler, professor of medical immunology and microbiology at UC Davis Health System, has identified a new mechanism explaining how antibiotics change the gut microbiota, increasing nutrients that benefit the growth of pathogens, like Salmonella.

Desiree Backman, chief prevention officer for the California Department of Health Care Services and UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement, received the Loma Lina University School of Public Health Alumnus of the Year Award at the school’s commencement ceremony June 12.

The new East 7 acute care pediatric unit is now open. The purpose of the six-bed unit is to provide care to stable pediatric patients, ages 5 and older. East 7 is designed for patients with a length of stay shorter than 24 hours, but it is equipped to care for patients with a longer length of stay.

The Northern California Chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA) recently honored Teresa Tempkin, co-director of the HDSA Center of Excellence at UC Davis, for her nearly 18 years of service to patients with Huntington’s disease and their families in Sacramento and the nation. The honor was presented during the chapter’s annual convention, held at the UC Davis MIND Institute.

In a retrospective study of dermatology research awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2009 to 2014, a team of UC Davis researchers found a significant decline in women investigators and a striking reduction in MD-only investigator funding dollars.

More than 5,000 children are treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments each year for window fall-related injuries. These falls and injuries tend to be more common during the spring and summer months since people tend to open their windows during warm weather.

Staff physicians and nurses from UC Davis and Orbis International, a global not for profit that brings the world together to fight blindness, are practicing their critical-care skills on board the new MD-10 Flying Eye Hospital, the world’s only accredited, mobile teaching eye hospital.

Although emerging research has identified potential targets for investigational medications for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, there is a significant gap between when they are identified and when clinical trials begin for patients. Evdokia Anagnostou, a Toronto-based clinician/scientist, will discuss the pipeline from bench research to clinical trials during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series.

Patients with late-stage, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have surgery have better survival rates than those who don’t, but fewer of these patients are undergoing surgery, UC Davis researchers have found.

Pregnant women with higher levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, proteins that control communication between cells of the immune system, may be at significantly greater risk of having a child with autism combined with intellectual disability, researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute have found.

The best care begins not only with the right team, but also the right equipment. The UC Davis Children’s Hospital Critical Care Transport (CCTT) Program is a dedicated children’s transport team available to a 33-county area – and sometimes beyond – 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Tonya Fancher, an associate professor of internal medicine who has overseen a variety of student training programs that focus on underserved populations, has been named the associate dean for Workforce Innovation and Community Engagement at the School of Medicine.

From role confusion for frontline nurses in leadership positions and challenges for school health administrators to confronting implicit bias in kindergarten and preparing seniors for emergencies, the scope of work undertaken by students at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis ranges from clinical to community, from birth to end of life.

Internationally renowned fetal and neonatal surgeon Diana Farmer was inducted for a one-year term as president of the American Pediatric Surgical Association during the organization’s annual meeting held May 15-17 in San Diego.

May 2016

Ralph de Vere White, a beloved urologist and acclaimed researcher who led the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer to designation by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), steps down as its long-time director on June 29.

UC Davis patients with COPD and other chronic lung diseases will perform some of the pieces they’ve learned through singing therapy, a unique and creative approach to improving airflow in and out of the lungs.

Grade school is an important period in children’s development, when they begin to mature and prepare to enter adolescence. Now, researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute hope to discover how to maximize that growth among children with autism to help them learn and thrive.

Jenna Shaw-Battista, the director for the Master’s Entry Program in Nursing and an associate clinical professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) at the association’s annual meeting May 25.

Airborne silver nanoparticles that are common in occupational settings travel from the nose to the brain, where they can remain for weeks and trigger an immune response linked with injury, UC Davis researchers studying adult rats have found.

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center has established a new, integrated translational cognitive neuroscience postdoctoral fellowship program through a five-year, $1 million grant from the National Institute on Aging.

Diana Miglioretti, UC Davis dean’s professor of biostatistics and an internationally recognized breast cancer screening expert, has received $7.5 million to determine the effectiveness of two supplemental breast screening and diagnostic workup strategies -- digital breast tomosynthesis (3D mammography) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -- used with mammography for cancer detection. Miglioretti’s team also will work to determine whether effectiveness of the screening strategies depends on a woman’s breast density.

The highly successful Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) intervention for children with autism, co-developed by Sally Rogers, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the UC Davis MIND Institute, has expanded training to more than 20 countries around the world.

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center has slated its 2016 Community Engagement Lecture Series calendar. All lectures are held from 6 to 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento, with the exception of the Nov. 5 the Alzheimer’s Disease Center Caregiver Workshop. Reservations are required. For reservations or information, please call 916-734-5728.

Voltage-gated calcium channels open in unison, rather than independently, to allow calcium ions into and activate excitable cells such as neurons and muscle cells, researchers with UC Davis Health System and the University of Washington have found.

It is not illegal for physicians to ask their patients about firearms, counsel them as they would on any other health matter, and disclose that information to third parties when necessary, according to a review of the literature by physicians at UC Davis, Brown University, and the University of Colorado who are helping to lead the effort to prevent firearm-related injuries in the U.S.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has re-designated the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center “comprehensive,” meaning that it meets stringent criteria in the areas of laboratory, clinical and population-based research, professional and public education and in the dissemination of clinical and public advances to the communities it serves.

Researchers at UC Davis have identified a new metabolic disorder that affects newborns and leads to death hours after their birth. Identification of the genetic defect has meant the delivery of a healthy newborn to a mother who earlier had lost two other newborns to the condition.

Project ADAM Sacramento, a UC Davis Children's Hospital program, is hosting a free community health fair and CPR/AED training to mark the completion of CPR and AED training of faculty, staff and students from the St. HOPE Public Schools. The event, funded by Children's Miracle Network at UC Davis, is open to the public and will feature entertainment, face painting, free food and family fun.

For its “strong foundation of high-quality care, stellar credentials and a focus on doing what is right for the patients in its community,” UC Davis Medical Center has for the second year in a row been named one of the 100 Great Hospitals in America by Becker’s Hospital Review.

Gerald Kayingo, an assistant clinical professor and director of the physician assistant program at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, was awarded a fellowship by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program to travel to Uganda to work with Bruce Kirenga, a pulmonologist at Makerere University Medical School in Uganda, to improve lung health through the development of an interprofessional, blended learning module on respiratory medicine called project iBreath.

Laura Goodman, a general surgery resident at UC Davis, has received a 2016-17 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant to study the surgical needs of children in Mongolia. This will be Goodman’s second time living and working in Mongolia. She first decided to become a doctor while volunteering there as an English teacher through the Peace Corps.

A miniature camera using optical character-recognition technology, mounted onto the eyeglasses of people who are considered legally blind, dramatically improves their ability to read an email, newspaper article, menu or page in a book, a study by researchers with UC Davis Health System.

Three UC Davis Health System teams have been selected from among 54 highly competitive proposals to receive awards to develop innovative information technology solutions in human health care from the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society — CITRIS — a collaboration of the UC campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz. The grants are awarded in collaboration with the Banatao Institute founded by high-tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Dado Banatao.

Autism and cancer share more than 40 risk genes, suggesting that common mechanisms underlying the functions of some of these genes could conceivably be leveraged to develop therapies not just for cancer but for autism as well, an extensive assessment by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute and Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.

Sacramento area high school students were honored with cash awards for their winning entries in the 2nd annual “Donate Life Visual Arts Contest” sponsored by the UC Davis Transplant Center and Sierra Donor Services. Contest participants created posters or videos to encourage their peers to say “yes” to organ and tissue donation when applying for California identification cards or driver’s licenses.

A community-based hepatitis B virus screening effort led by UC Davis researchers found that targeted outreach to Asian American populations can identify groups at high risk for infection and direct them to appropriate follow-up care to help prevent the onset of liver diseases, including cancer.

Researchers at UC Davis have shown that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a fatty acid commonly found in fish and fish oil supplements, reduces renal cell carcinoma invasiveness, growth rate, and blood vessel growth when combined with the anti-cancer therapy regorafenib. The study was published in the May issue of the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

Antibiotics are essential for fighting bacterial infection, but, paradoxically, they can also make the body more prone to infection and diarrhea. Research led by Andreas Bäumler, professor of medical immunology and microbiology at UC Davis Health System, has identified the chain of events that occur within the gut lumen after antibiotic treatment that allow “bad” bugs to flourish.

April 2016

Starting on May 1, Costco stores throughout Northern California will be selling paper “Miracle Balloons” in exchange for donations to UC Davis Children’s Hospital. It is part of the national Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals campaign, which runs throughout the Miracle Month of May.

In a study published today in Cell Reports, Wenbin Deng and his colleagues present data showing that immature astroglial transplants, derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), are highly protective against white matter brain injury — which can occur from lack of oxygen following a stroke or in childbirth — and can improve spatial learning and memory function in mouse models.

Ulfat Shaikh, professor of pediatrics and director of healthcare quality at UC Davis School of Medicine, accepted the invitation to serve on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Quality Improvement Innovation Networks (QuIIN) Steering Committee.

Thirty-two students, trainees, clinicians and staff recently graduated from the UC Davis Health System Training Program in Health System Improvement last month. The program is designed to develop and support change agents at the frontlines of our health care system, focusing on key concepts in implementing, evaluating and sustaining quality improvement (QI) initiatives.

Sean Sawicki, who has fragile X syndrome, can be hard to understand and doesn’t always have the attention span to carry on a sustained conversation. But a novel intervention developed by UC Davis MIND Institute researchers seems to be making a difference.

UC Davis molecular biologist John Albeck is among 10 recipients chosen to receive a 2016 Innovative Research Grant (IRG) from Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C), a non-profit that supports innovative, high-risk, high-reward projects to accelerate the pace of cancer research and give patients access to new therapies as quickly as possible.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent hospital watchdog group that includes some of the country’s largest employers and health-care purchasers, has again awarded UC Davis Medical Center an “A” on its most recent Hospital Safety Score.l

Miss California Bree Morse was a welcome sight, when she strolled into the pediatric playroom at UC Davis Children's Hospital last week. With a dazzling smile to rival her crown, Morse lit up the room, as she talked and played with children and signed autographs.

As part of a new multicenter clinical trial, UC Davis Health System researchers will test whether a novel stem cell treatment can reduce the pain and mobility issues caused by degenerative disc disease.

Jacqueline Stocking, a nurse and doctoral candidate at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, was awarded a $50,000 Impact Research Grant from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) for her work to identify factors associated with having serious breathing trouble after surgery.

The UC Davis MIND Institute in Sacramento, Calif. today helped launch SPARK, an online research initiative designed to become the largest autism study ever undertaken in the United States. Sponsored by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI), SPARK will collect information and DNA for genetic analysis from 50,000 individuals with autism — and their families — to advance our understanding of the causes of this condition and to hasten the discovery of supports and treatments. [español]

The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Division of Hematology/Oncology has been recognized by the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) Certification Program for meeting the nation’s highest quality standards for cancer care.

The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) today announced plans to launch of the International Cancer Genome Consortium for Medicine (ICGCmed), a new phase in the consortium’s evolution that will link genomics to clinical information and health.

Golfers will play “fore” the kids at this year’s 10th annual Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) Friendship Invitational on Monday, April 18 at Granite Bay Golf Club. The event will attract more than 140 golfers and raised more than $108,000 for UC Davis Children’s Hospital last year.

Christopher R. Polage, associate professor of pathology and infectious diseases at UC Davis Medical Center, received a Distinguished Clinical Research Award this week from the Clinical Research Forum for his innovative study that found popular molecular tests over diagnose Clostridium difficile infections by up to 50 percent.

Devices intended to stop potentially deadly blood clots from reaching the lungs can help a small portion of the patients who receive them but can also increase the risk of additional clots, researchers at UC Davis Health System have found.

UC Davis researchers have shown that radiation therapy following surgery benefits older patients more than their younger counterparts, a surprising finding that could change the way some patients are treated for soft tissue sarcomas (STS).

Donald Pfaff of Rockefeller University will discuss his “3-hit” theory of autism, related to a combination of sex differences, stress and genetics, during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation on Wednesday, April 13, at 4:30 p.m.

Each year in the United States, firearm violence results in approximately 30,000 deaths and 75,000 nonfatal injuries to patients seen in hospital emergency rooms. Garen Wintemute, internationally renowned director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis Health System, will discuss “Firearm Violence and Mental Illness.”

More than two dozen UC Davis nursing faculty, researchers and students will present their scholarly work focusing on health care quality, equity and access at the Western Institute of Nursing 49th Annual Communicating Nursing Research Conference in Anaheim, California, today through Saturday.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded UC Davis Latino Aging Research Resource Center (LARRC) and Alzheimer’s Disease Center hosted an all-day conference on March 16, 2016 on “Cognitive Aging and Diversity: Progress and Future Challenges." The conference highlighted NIA-funded research in Northern California associated with UC Davis and UC San Francisco, and brought together leading national experts from across the country. Approximately 80 participants attended.

Whites with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in California receive more state funding than Hispanics, African Americans, Asians and others, new research from UC Davis Health System has found. The study also showed that spending on ASD increases dramatically with age. [en español]

Children and families at UC Davis Children’s Hospital had a chance to take a break from their daily routines and race around the pediatrics unit today, thanks in part to this year’s Credit Union Run SACTOWN partners. UC Davis Children's Hospital is a proud race sponsor and the chief beneficiary of the Credit Union Run SACTOWN and the Sacramento Running Association.

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the Alzheimer’s Association will hold the 8th Annual African American Caregiving and Wellness Forum on Saturday, April 16, at the Ed Roberts Campus in Berkeley. The event will feature discussions of recent developments in Alzheimer’s research, Alzheimer’s advocacy, and how to better support caregivers for people living with Alzheimer’s.

March 2016

Harvey V. Fineberg, a nationally recognized leader and authority on issues in public health and former president of the Institute of Medicine, discussed the role of nursing in safety and quality of health care at the annual dean’s lecture series at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis.

A large study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found that a gene whose role is to suppress cellular damage from environmental stressors is nearly twice as likely to be defective in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and that the deficit is also present in their fathers.

UC Davis School of Medicine today joined with more than 60 other medical schools in a pledge to require their students to take some form of prescriber education, in line with the newly released Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain, in order to graduate.

A project at all five University of California medical centers, led by Gregory Maynard, Chief Quality Officer for UC Davis Medical Center, is a winner of the 2015 CDC Healthcare-Associated Venous Thromboembolism (HA-VTE) Prevention Challenge.

Monitoring blood glucose levels and giving multiple insulin injections every day are the keys to successfully managing diabetes, but it can be particularly challenging for young people. Thanks to the diabetes incentive program at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, pediatric patients are testing their blood sugar levels and dosing insulin as prescribed by their doctors, and being rewarded.

Researchers at UC Davis, in collaboration with the other institutions, have found that suppressing the nuclear receptor protein ROR-γ with small-molecule compounds can reduce androgen receptor (AR) levels in castration-resistant prostate cancer and stop tumor growth.

A large, multicenter study led by the UC Davis School of Medicine for the first time has shown that people as young as their 40s have stiffening of the arteries that is associated with subtle structural damage to the brain that is implicated in cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease later in life.

Antipsychotic medications are prescribed to Hispanics with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias at higher rates than non-Hispanic whites, for dementia-related mental-health symptoms such as depression, anxiety and aggression, a UC Davis study conducted using data from a large and diverse population of elderly dementia patients has found.

Bennet Omalu, a pathologist whose discoveries have led to greater understanding of concussions in sports and better protection against head injury, has been selected for the U.S. Sports Academy’s highest award in sports medicine, the Dr. Ernst Jokl Sports Medicine Award.

Robert Hales, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UC Davis, has received the 2016 Vestermark Award from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for his excellence, leadership and creativity in the field of psychiatry education.

A research study that followed children from birth up to age 38 has found that people who smoked cannabis four or more days of the week over many years ended up in a lower social class than their parents, with lower-paying, less skilled and less prestigious jobs than those who were not regular cannabis smokers. [en español]

Researchers at UC Davis have discovered an unexpected link between how the immune system sounds an alarm when its cells are taken over by pathogens during an infection and how an inflammatory response is triggered. The finding of this novel link, published in the journal Nature on March 23, is important because it helps researchers understand how a cell senses bacterial or viral infection, and how these pathways are linked to inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes and atherosclerosis.

Two new UC Davis research efforts, one aimed at addressing fatal early childhood conditions known as Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff disease, the other designed to develop an immunotherapy that would eradicate solid tumor cancer stem cells and create sustained anti-tumor effects, have been approved for funding by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

New UC Davis Health System research shows that physicians can quickly and easily use a directed communication approach known as SEE IT (or Self-Efficacy Enhancing Interviewing Techniques) that is designed to boost patient confidence in managing chronic disease symptoms and increase the likelihood that they will make healthy changes that improve outcomes.

Jack MacMillan, clinical professor of internal medicine and palliative care physician at UC Davis, is featured in the next episode of ViewFinder, a locally produced documentary series that airs on Sacramento’s public television station: KVIE-Channel 6.

Mark Underwood, associate professor and the chief of pediatric neonatology at UC Davis Children's Hospital, is the recipient of the 2015 Dean’s Excellence in Mentoring Award in the area of Clinical Care.

U.S. News & World Report names the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis among the nation’s best for master’s-degree nursing programs in the 2017 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools.

In a promising finding for research into Huntington’s disease (HD) — the devastating inherited neurodegenerative disorder — a team of UC Davis investigators has identified for the first time a way to use human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to deliver the key brain protein growth factor that is dramatically diminished by Huntington’s disease.

Visitors to the UC Davis MIND Institute’s Massie Family Clinic are now met with a wall of vibrant colors and whimsical designs in ceramic tile, a creation of The Mural Project, which combined the talents of three professional artists and artists with developmental disabilities from the Short Centers.

Rite Aid is kicking off its annual Miracle Balloon campaign by asking customers to support UC Davis Children’s Hospital. From March 13 to April 30, customers can purchase $1 paper Miracle Balloons and receive coupon offers for a variety of products sold at Rite Aid.

UC Davis Health System, primarily through its Center for Reducing Health Disparities, has joined forces with Solano County to launch a new initiative to help better address access to and utilization of the county’s mental health services.

Nim Tottenham, an associate professor of psychology at Columbia University, will discuss “Development of Human Amygdala-Prefrontal Cortex Circuitry and the Role of the Caregiver” during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation on Wednesday, March 9, at 4:30 p.m.

UC Davis environmental scientist Michele La Merrill is among five exceptional early-career scientists receiving grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) for research on how substances in the environment could harm human health.

When UC Davis Pediatric Heart Center surgeons faced a complex patient case in January, they consulted with cardiologists, pediatric intensive care unit physicians, radiologists, and, for the first time, biomedical engineers, who brought a new technology into the picture: three-dimensional printers. This new technology successfully created a model of a patient’s complex heart anatomy.

IHOP® guests are invited to enjoy a free short stack of pancakes during National Pancake Day on Tuesday, March 8and help raise funds for member Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, including UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

The California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) has elected Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, professor of internal medicine and founding director of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities, to its board of directors.

February 2016

Josefina and Greg Walker, of Stockton, received a special Leap Year gift today – the birth of their identical, monoamniotic twin daughters, Isabella and Sofia, who were delivered this morning at UC Davis Medical Center at 32 weeks gestation.

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute are seeking teens and young adults ages 12-22 to participate in an innovative brain imaging study aimed at understanding how the brain functions and behaviors emerge during a critical yet understudied period of development: the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

UC Davis cardiologists completed their 100th MitraClip case on Feb. 24, a milestone achieved by just a handful of hospitals nationwide. UC Davis Medical Center is the first to reach this mark in the Sacramento region.

Technology may not have caught up to the teleportation devices of science fiction, but now we have some idea of how the brain handles “beaming up” from one location to another, thanks to research by neuroscientists at the University of California, Davis, involving some specially wired volunteers.

It can’t be easy parting with a head of beautiful long, dark hair. But that’s exactly what Venessa Garcia plans to do. A patient care coordinator at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, Garcia will undergo the razor treatment March 14 during the annual St. Baldrick’s Foundation event for pediatric cancer research.

Two UC Davis Children’s Hospital and UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center patients had the chance to forget about cancer treatments for an evening and meet Princess Anna and Princess Elsa from Frozen at recent Disney On Ice performances.

Harvey V. Fineberg, a nationally recognized leader and authority on issues in public health and health policy, policy development, technology and higher education, will discuss the role of nursing in safety and quality of health care at the annual dean’s lecture series at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. This year’s lecture begins at 4 p.m. on March 29 in room 1222 of the Education Building, located at 4610 X St. in Sacramento.

UC Davis Children's Hospital patients and their families will be racing around the pediatrics unit, with a brief stop for doughnut holes, in celebration of Donut Dash. For the first time, UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department will be receiving proceeds from Donut Dash, a four-mile run in William Land Park on March 5, which includes a stop for doughnuts.

To help answer the public’s questions and concerns about the Zika virus, UC Davis Health System is hosting a public forum with a panel of leading experts on the transmission, treatment and prevention of the disease. Information on how to protect yourself when traveling to areas where Zika is prevalent will be provided.

Samuel T. Hwang, a board-certified dermatologist with extensive experience as a physician scientist investigating immunological diseases of the skin, has been named chair of the UC Davis Department of Dermatology.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital patient Vestia Demarco celebrated her sixth birthday yesterday, with a visit from the Fairfield firefighters, who saved her life when she was injured by a hit-and-run driver earlier this month.

Phi Delta Epsilon, the professional, co-ed, pre-medical fraternity based at UC Davis, will be hosting their 5th annual benefit ball to raise money for UC Davis Children's Hospital. The event will be held Saturday, Feb. 27 from 7-10 p.m. at the ARC Ballroom on Davis campus.

As part of a new multicenter clinical trial, UC Davis Health System researchers will test whether a novel stem cell treatment can reduce the pain and mobility issues caused by degenerative disc disease.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis joined the School of Medicine in partnership with the Sacramento County Health Department. A clinical professor and clinical provider position was established that benefits health care within the county and furthers the school’s mission to serve underserved communities.

Richard L. Applegate II, a thought leader with comprehensive clinical experience and academic excellence in general anesthesiology and cardiothoracic anesthesiology, joins UC Davis School of Medicine as professor and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. His appointment begins Feb. 8.

Neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth, the D.H. Chen Professor of Bioengineering and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, will discuss “Illuminating the Brain in Health and Disease” during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at 4:30 p.m.

The UC Davis Office of Continuing Medical Education (CME) has received prestigious recognition for courses it offers to thousands of health-care professionals each year. Last month, it earned top marks with a flawless six-year reaccreditation for its exceptional training and education programs.

UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department will continue to train individuals to become certified child life specialists at UC Davis Children's Hospital, thanks to a generous donation by Spirit Halloween Superstores.

For the second year in a row, the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis received a $149,995 grant from the Office of Statewide Health and Planning to further advance the innovative Integrative Case-Based Learning curriculum for its clinical programs.

Michael Greger, a best-selling author and creator of the seminal website NutritionFacts.org, will speak about “Food as Medicine: Preventing and Treating Disease With Diet” on Thursday, Feb. 11, from noon to 1 p.m. at the Education Building, Lecture Hall 1222.

Michael LeFevre, a family medicine physician with the University of Missouri and national advocate for linking medical evidence with clinical policies, will speak in Sacramento as part of the 2016 UC Davis Health System Snively Visiting Professorship in Family and Community Medicine.

Melissa Barnett, principal optometrist at the UC Davis Eye Center, is the new president of the Scleral Lens Education Society, an international organization that teaches practitioners the science and art of prescribing scleral contact lenses and supports public education.

Researchers at UC Davis and Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national laboratories have created a chemotherapy-resistant line of bladder cancer cells to study how tumors become resistant to chemotherapy and identified molecular changes that could drive that resistance.

January 2016

African American and Hispanic adolescents and young adults fare far worse than their white counterparts when faced with a mostly curable type of cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma, a study by a UC Davis epidemiologist has found.

Ruth Legesse and Nicole Klopovic, both second-year physician assistant students at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, were awarded two of this year’s 18 nationwide Physician Assistant Foundation scholarships.

The 13th Annual UC Davis Bariatric Surgery Fashion Show — called “An Evening with the Stars” — will showcase 10 UC Davis Health System patients who lost a significant amount of weight following weight-loss surgery.

The Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center at UC Davis was among the honorees today at the 15th Annual Red Cross Hero Recognition event that paid tribute to community members who took action to help others and show extraordinary human compassion during times of crisis.

The eighth annual Donut Dash will take place Saturday, March 5, at 8:30 a.m. at William Land Park in Sacramento. For the first time, proceeds will benefit the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

The UC Davis Hospice Program and UC Davis Children's Hospital Bereavement Program will offer an eight-week Young Adult Bereavement Art Group for individuals 17 to 24 who are coping with the recent loss of a loved one.

An international collaboration between UC Davis and Swedish scientists has resulted in the first comprehensive characterization of a recently discovered cell-to-cell communication system used by stem cells.

UC Davis investigators have found that telecommunication systems that provide remote monitoring and access to specialty care in intensive care units (ICUs) are cost-effective in most cases and can even be cost-saving in certain circumstances, making this intervention potentially economically favorable compared with other health-care services.

UC Davis’ leadership in Huntington’s disease research received another boost recently when Kyle Fink, a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Regenerative Cures, was recognized by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) for the cutting-edge research findings in gene editing that he presented at the 2015 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting.

A systematic review of the scientific literature on dense breasts by researchers at UC Davis and other institutions has found that determinations of breast density can be unreliable and that as many as 19 percent of women are re-categorized as dense rather than non-dense or vice versa from one mammogram to the next.

Student advocate Jordana Steinberg will talk about the need to expand mental health support for young adults at the Student Resiliency and Mental Health Fair at UC Davis. Sponsored by the UC Davis Behavioral Health Center of Excellence, the event will feature mental health and wellness resources available on campus and in the community.

December 2015

Jonathan Kipnis, director of the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG) at the University of Virginia, will discuss “The Brain’s Lymphatic System and Behavior” during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 4:30 p.m.

UC Davis Medical Group has received the Medicare Advantage 4.5-Star Award from the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA) for delivering a high level of quality care for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries in California.

UC Davis School of Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing have been selected to participate in a new national professional development program known as Professionals Accelerating Clinical and Educational Redesign (PACER).

UC Davis Children's Hospital patients and their families will enjoy a holiday tradition – cookie decorating and crafts, led by The Frosting Queens, two Sacramento sisters who own a frosting business. The sisters will lead a cookie decorating workshop and a homemade snowman craft project in the pediatric playroom.

Researchers at UC Davis and other institutions have shown that isavuconazole, a new treatment for invasive mold diseases such as Aspergillus, has fewer side effects than voriconazole and is just as effective. These results are good news for leukemia and lymphoma patients, who can be vulnerable to these opportunistic infections. The study was published Dec. 9 in TheLancet.

Representatives from Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam’s Memory) at UC Davis Children's Hospital will join the estimated 1,000 people – including more than 50 cardiac arrest survivors – to march through the streets of downtown San Diego on Thursday, Dec. 10, from 11:25 a.m. to 1:25 p.m.

CBS Radio Mix96 and Children's Miracle Network Hospitals is partnering for their second annual "Mix Cares 4 Kids" radiothon at UC Davis Children's Hospital. Mix96, 96.1FM will broadcast live each day from 6-10 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. Dec. 10-11 from the Tower Lobby of the hospital.

They came on foot, by toy car, by stroller and wheelchair. UC Davis Children’s Hospital patients were bustling with excitement at the starting line, eager to take part in today’s Mini Marathon, an event made possible by the UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department and the Sacramento Running Association, which hosts the California International Marathon (CIM) each year.

In a game-changing study, researchers at UC Davis and other organizations have shown that the enzyme cyclin-dependent kinase 1 (CDK1), which plays a key role in DNA repair, also leaves the nucleus to boost cellular energy production. By irradiating normal cells, the team showed that CDK1 turned up production of ATP, cellular energy packets that – in this case – provided the necessary power supply to fix the radiation-damaged DNA.

For the fourth consecutive year, UC Davis Medical Center has been named to Leapfrog’s annual list of Top Hospitals, a respected recognition that showcases UC Davis’ commitment to providing the safest, highest quality health care for consumers and purchasers alike.

UC Davis Health System research presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago helps resolve two persistent questions about knuckle cracking: What causes the “crack” sound, and does it damage the hand?

Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, a third-year medical student at UC Davis School of Medicine, has been awarded one of this year’s Herbert W. Nickens Medical Student Scholarships by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

November 2015

Jacob Montoya lost his grandmother to ovarian cancer, and supported his uncle through treatment for colon cancer. What struck him most about both of them was the resilience with which they faced their disease.

Researchers at UC Davis have shown that the California Tele-Audiology Program (CTP), which provides follow-up diagnostic evaluations for infants who did not pass their initial newborn hearing test, dramatically improves access to audiologists. [en español]

Kit Lam, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, has been awarded two major, multi-disciplinary U01 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the first to investigate use of a new tool to visualize cancer tumor growth and response to nanoparticle drugs, and the other to develop a new 4-D imaging tool to advance the understanding of how the nucleus functions in living cells.

If pigeons went to medical school and specialized in pathology or radiology, they’d be pretty good at distinguishing digitized microscope slides and mammograms of normal vs. cancerous breast tissue, a new study from researchers at the University of California, Davis and The University of Iowa has found.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at UC Davis Health System has been certified by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation for leadership in improving health and quality of life for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other lung diseases.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Assistance to Newborns Using Telehealth (PEANUT) program marks its second anniversary this month. The program provides clinicians at rural hospitals round-the-clock access to neonatologists and other subspecialists through the use of UC Davis’ award-winning secure videoconferencing capabilities.

Leaders of UC Davis, along with leaders from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, UC Davis Health System and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, broke ground on Betty Irene Moore Hall on the UC Davis Sacramento campus on Nov. 10, 2015.

UC Davis Children's Hospital’s annual Halloween celebration took place Saturday, Oct. 31 on the pediatrics unit. Patients and staff got into the Halloween spirit with costumes, games and trick-or-treating. The special event was made possible by the Davis 7 pediatric nurses and the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department.

For the first time, UC Davis Children's Hospital will host its own healthcare providers panel workshop at this Saturday's Kids Expo California at McClellan Conference Center in Sacramento. The panel will be held at 3 p.m. and will provide an opportunity for providers to offer some helpful health tips and advice to parents. A question-and-answer session for parents will follow.

A new report by the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) comparing quality of care and outcomes for breast, colon, rectal, lung and prostate cancers according to source of health insurance coverage has identified substantial disparities in stage of diagnosis, providers’ use of recommended treatment and survival rates.

A new report by the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) comparing quality of care and outcomes for breast, colon, rectal, lung and prostate cancers according to source of health insurance coverage has identified substantial disparities in stage of diagnosis, providers’ use of recommended treatment and survival rates.

Karen Kelly, associate director for clinical research at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been named chair of the Lung Committee of SWOG, one of the nation’s leading cooperative cancer research organizations.

In recognition of its success in preventing hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, UC Davis Medical Center has received a Performance Excellence Award from the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes (CALNOC).

Ninth Row Media, an online entertainment platform focused on gaming, movies and the community, will be participating in Extra Life, a 24-hour gaming fundraiser in support of their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital, UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

UC Davis researchers have received a four-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a small, wearable sensor that can measure the relationship between environmental exposures and pediatric asthma.

Leaders of UC Davis, along with leaders from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, UC Davis Health System and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, plan a groundbreaking celebration for Betty Irene Moore Hall Nov. 10, 2015, at 1:30 p.m. on the UC Davis Sacramento campus.

October 2015

Researchers with the Behavioral Health Center of Excellence and MIND Institute at UC Davis are seeking adult participants, aged 18 to 38 years and diagnosed with or suspected of having autism or Asperger’s disorder, to participate in a research study, the ACCESS Program (Acquiring Career, Coping, Executive-Function and Social Skills Program).

David Amaral, Beneto Foundation Chair and Director of Research, UC Davis MIND Institute, has been appointed by United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell to the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee(IACC), which advises the secretary on approaches to advance research, strengthen services and increase opportunities for people with autism spectrum disorder.

During this month’s World Burn Congress in Indianapolis, the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors honored David Greenhalgh, professor and chief of burn surgery at UC Davis Medical Center, with its Breslau Award.

The first Harvest Festival, presented by Courtyard by Marriott and benefiting the Children’s Miracle Network at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 28, at the Courtyard Marriott Midtown, 4422 Y Street, Sacramento. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. and the program is 5-7:30 p.m.

Bennet I. Omalu, associate clinical professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UC Davis, has been named a 2015 Health Hero by WebMD for his work identifying chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and his relentless efforts to increase awareness of the risks caused by blows to the head, which have led to stricter rules for athletes playing high-impact sports.

Get ready for UC Davis’ 14th annual Mini Medical School, the highly regarded six-week curriculum that prepares attendees for life’s second half. Interactive presentations offer the chance to learn the latest information about aging and medical science, and taught by physicians and other health experts.

Jason Karlawish, professor of medicine, medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, will offer his insights on “Having Alzheimer’s Disease with Dignity” during the 2015 UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Community Engagement Series Lecture on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento.

Declan Murphy, professor, Institute of Psychiatry, London, will discuss the challenges of translating modern research on autism spectrum disorder into practical treatments for affected individuals during the November 2015 UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series.

John D. McPherson, a basic scientist whose work contributed significantly to the sequencing of the human genome, has assumed the role of associate director, basic sciences at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and holds the Auburn Community Cancer Endowed Chair in Basic Science.

In a study conducted to inform American Cancer Society breast cancer screening guidelines, UC Davis researcher Diana L. Miglioretti reports a screening mammogram once every two years is safe for postmenopausal women at average risk of breast cancer.

The UC Davis Pediatric Heart Center has been accredited by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) in echocardiology in the areas of pediatric transesophageal, pediatric transthoracic and fetal.

Julie Ann Freischlag, UC Davis vice chancellor for human health sciences and dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), an achievement that is among the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

UC Davis Medical Center has been recognized as one of the “Most Connected Hospitals” for 2015-16 by U.S. News & World Report. The U.S. News list recognizes hospitals whose excellence in patient safety, patient engagement and clinical connectedness improves patient care. The distinction was given to only 159 hospitals around the country, including just 10 in California.

Tickets are on sale for the 38th annual Silent Auction and Wine Tasting Benefit, set for Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, from 5-10 p.m. in the Education Building of the UC Davis School of Medicine, 4610 X Street, Sacramento.

It is estimated that sports and recreational activities cause 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions in the U.S. each year. Concussions were previously underreported, as people didn’t fully understand all the symptoms that can indicate the presence of a concussion.

Hospitalized children were three times less likely to become sick with Clostridium difficile (C. diff), a serious bacterial infection that can occur after prolonged antibiotic use, following implementation of an antibiotic stewardship program, a new UC Davis study found. These programs reduce the misuse of antibiotics and therefore C. diff, and also result in antibiotic cost savings, according to research being presented at IDWeek 2015™.

A new bilingual website sensitive to Hispanic/Latino cultural needs increases knowledge about living kidney donation and transplantation beyond standard education provided by transplant centers, a new study published Oct. 7 in the journal Transplantation has found. [en español]

Monique Breteler, director of Population Health Sciences at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, will address “What You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease,” during the October UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center 2015 Distinguished Lecture.

A UC Davis research team has been awarded $15.5 million to build the world’s first total-body positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, which could fundamentally change the way cancers are tracked and treated and put the university on the nation’s leading edge of molecular imaging.

Concussions — occurring from impacts to the head on the sports field, battlefield, or in an automobile or other accident — are the subject of a two-hour event featuring a multidisciplinary group of UC Davis physicians conducting leading-edge research to identify and treat traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and their long-term aftermath, dementia.

September 2015

In an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Primo Lara, associate director for Translational Research at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and David Quinn, medical director, USC Norris Cancer Hospital, highlight two new drugs that have shown great efficacy against kidney cancer.

A costly tool used on nearly all mammograms does not increase cancer detection rates and should no longer be covered by Medicare, argues Joshua Fenton, a family physician and comparative effectiveness researcher in an editorial published online today in the Journal of the American Medical AssociationInternal Medicine.

UC Davis Health System researchers have received a four-year, $1.3 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to use a technology-based approach to help prevent suicide among those most at risk: middle-aged men.

Thanks to Les Mahler from Stomp Out Kids Cancer, UC Davis Children’s Hospital pediatric patients had the opportunity to attend an Oakland A’s baseball game this summer. The tickets were provided at no cost to patients.

Researchers at UC Davis have shown that the protein LRIG1 reduces breast cancer invasion and could potentially help control metastasis. Using aggressive basal-like breast cancer cell lines, the scientists found that restoring LRIG1 expression reduced these cells’ growth and invasiveness.

Ricardo A. Maselli, UC Davis professor of neurology, has received a $300,000 grant from the Muscular Dystrophy Association to test the use of stem cells as a vehicle for delivering ColQ, which is a protein that is deficient in a severe form of Congenital Myasthenic Syndrome.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis welcomed 34 graduate students Thursday at a ceremony to mark the beginning of their Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Degree Programs. Nine students begin their four-year journey to achieve Doctor of Philosophy degrees, along with 25 people pursuing master’s degrees in leadership.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital patients had a special visit from the Big Top yesterday when Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus performers came to unveil a new permanent circus mural and bring smiles to children and families.

Fall is just around the corner, but falls shouldn’t be just around the corner for older adults. That’s why four local hospitals, including UC Davis Medical Center, are offering fall-risk screening and education events during national Fall Prevention Awareness Week, which is Sept. 23-29.

Whether the language and social development of very young children with ASD can be improved through treatment with sertraline, commonly known by the brand name Zoloft ®, is the subject of a new clinical trial at the UC Davis MIND Institute.

Researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute are participating in an initiative project to provide better treatment for children with autism in under-served areas through a five-year, $10 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. The program aims, to bring evidence-based research practices to communities throughout the U.S.

The UC Davis MIND Institute kicks off its 2015-16 Distinguished Lecturer Series in October with an address by Lisa Croen, Director of the Kaiser Permanente Autism Research Program, who will address “The epidemiology of autism: Investigating perinatal risk factors.” The event will be held Wednesday, Oct. 14 from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the MIND Institute, 2825 50th St. It is free and open to the public and no reservations are required.

Vitamin D insufficiency among the elderly is highly correlated with accelerated cognitive decline and impaired performance, particularly in domains such as memory loss that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, researchers with the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center and Rutgers University have found. [en español] [中文 Chinese]

A gathering of mental health experts from across the nation will examine how evidence-based research can advance treatments — and improve lives — for young people developing serious mental illness is the focus of a daylong symposium aimed at the agencies that most often deliver those therapies: county, state and national mental-health services providers.

Children undergoing cancer treatment at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center take center stage in a series of specially created videos aimed at helping families cope with a new diagnosis, through their treatment journey and into survivorship.

Welltopia, a website that offers Californians a wide range of essential resources to help build healthier lives and communities, will be honored with a 2015 Digital Government Achievement Award by GovTech’s Center for Digital Government on Sept. 25 in New Orleans. [en español]

Clostridium difficile is a common cause of infection and diarrhea in hospitalized patients, but a new study by UC Davis pathologists suggests that many patients are mistakenly diagnosed and do not need antibiotic treatment.

The UC Davis Hospice Program and UC Davis Children's Hospital Bereavement Program will offer an eight-week Young Adult Bereavement Art Group for individuals 17 to 24 who are coping with the recent loss of a loved one.

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center will participate in the 2015 Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Sacramento on Saturday, Oct. 3. The center’s team name is “UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center;” it is seeking team participants and donations. To participate or make a gift visit the website for the Alzheimer’s Association, which sponsors the event.

UC Davis Health System will host its annual Mini-Medical School in Spanish, La Mini Escuela de Medicina en Español, on Saturday, Sept. 12 on the Sacramento campus of UC Davis. The event is sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Center for Reducing Health Disparities and the Latino Aging Research Resource Center of UC Davis. [en español]

August 2015

Alzheimer’s researchers at UC Davis and UC San Diego have launched a new study which aims to detect the earliest stages of cognitive dysfunction in people with pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease by using event-related brain potentials (ERPs).

Alzheimer’s behaviors: How do I manage them? will be the subject of the next UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Community Discovery Lecture Series address. The discussion will be held on Monday, Sept. 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the Lescher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek .

The evaluation of new treatments for autism spectrum disorder is being hampered by the lack of validated measures to assess the progress that individuals make in such treatments. UC Davis MIND Institute researchers, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota and University of Washington, will study the utility of methods for measuring language acquisition in people with autism spectrum disorder, in order to evaluate their treatment progress, through a $125,000 seed grant from the Simons Foundation for Autism Research.

Fereydoun Hormozdiari recently has joined the UC Davis faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, affiliated with the Human Genome Center and the UC Davis MIND Institute.

“Alzheimer’s behaviors: How do I manage them?” will be the subject of the next UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Community Discovery Lecture Series address. The discussion will be held on Thursday, Sept. 10, from 6 to 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento.

Gary S. Leiserowitz, professor and chief of gynecologic oncology, has been appointed chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine. Leiserowitz previously was the department’s interim chair, starting in August 2014.

UC Davis ALS Multidisciplinary Clinic Co-Directors Bjorn Oskarsson and Nanette Joyce demonstrated how to water the grass, despite the drought, and raise money for a very worthy cause: The ALS Association of Greater Sacramento. The association supports the clinic, which is an ALS Center of Excellence. If you would like to make a gift, click here. The ice bucket challenge took place on Wednesday, August 19.

New York Blood Center (NYBC) today announced a new collaboration with the University of California, Davis, Health System to manufacture specialized lines of stem cells as potential therapies for repair and regeneration of retina, kidney, lung and liver tissue, as well as for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease.

Soccer fans can help sick and injured children at UC Davis Children's Hospital by buying tickets to the August 22 Sacramento Republic FC match. For every ticket purchased using the link bit.ly/ucdavischildrenand promo code: KIDS, Sacramento Republic FC will donate $20 to UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

Staff, faculty, students and neighbors enjoyed live music, food and fun at last week’s free summer concert, presented by UC Davis Children’s Hospital. The event was co-hosted by the UC Davis Health System Community Advisory Board and Shriners Hospitals for Children – Northern California.

Twenty American Indian undergraduates from across the western United States recently attended the second annual American Indians Accessing Health Professions Workshop 2015 at UC Davis Health System. The three-day workshop was hosted and organized by the UC Davis School of Medicine Office of Student and Resident Diversity, in partnership with the Association of American Indian Physicians, UCLA and the University of Nevada.

In a discovery that is likely to rewrite immunology text books, researchers at UC Davis have found that early exposure to inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin 2, can “paralyze” CD4 T cells, immune components that help orchestrate the body’s response to pathogens and other invaders.

Hardy souls from the UC Davis Multidisciplinary ALS Clinic will take up the cause to raise funds for the ALS Association on Wednesday, Aug. 19, during the ALS ice-bucket challenge — a dousing with ice-cold water that is a call to action to donate to a cure for ALS.

Megan Y. Dennis recently joined the faculty of the UC Davis MIND Institute and the Human Genome Center as an assistant professor in biochemistry and molecular medicine. Dennis’s research involves the use of genomic and genetic techniques to explore the underlying causes of neurological disorders, including autism spectrum disorder.

UC Davis’ newest cancer fighting team – “Alfie” and “Charlie” – are a pair of puppies now in training to sharpen their cancer-scent detection abilities so they can work directly with physicians in the fight against human cancer.

Two UC Davis School of Medicine faculty members and a dean emeritus of the school have been recognized with the 2015 Hibbard Williams Extraordinary Achievement Award and the C. John Tupper Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

The UC Davis Injury and Trauma Prevention Program has received a grant for $202,309 from Kohl’s Cares® to support its child and adolescent injury prevention efforts in the Sacramento area. Kohl’s will formally present the donation at the UC Davis Children’s Hospital free summer concert on Thursday, Aug. 13 at 6 p.m. Since 2005, Kohl’s has donated more than $2.4 million to UC Davis Children’s Hospital to support its children’s health initiatives.

A cross-disciplinary center focused on identifying connections between environmental toxins and disease has been established at UC Davis Health System with the ultimate goal of developing preventions and policies that protect communities from unhealthy exposures.

Kidneys transplanted from infants who died of birth-related or other complications are less likely to fail due to a post-surgical vascular complication known as graft arterial stenosis (GAS) than kidneys from deceased adults, resesarchers have found.

UC Davis pediatric oncologist and researcher Noriko Satake has been awarded a 2015 Hartwell Biomedical Research Collaboration Award from The Hartwell Foundation, a philanthropy that funds innovative and leading-edge biomedical research with the potential to benefit children of the United States. This is the first time a Hartwell investigator from UC Davis has received the Foundation’s inter-institutional Collaboration Award.

In a check presentation Aug. 6 at the UC Davis Medical Center, Roy Chavez, a UC Davis brain cancer patient and Mule Creek State Prison correctional officer, made a generous gift to support programs and services for children staying at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

Simon Cherry, distinguished professor in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology, and co-leader of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Biomedical Technology Program, has been selected to receive a prestigious Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Fitz-Roy Curry, distinguished professor emeritus of physiology and membrane biology and biomedical engineering at UC Davis, has been honored with two international recognitions for his contributions in microcirculation research.

Physicians should improve the way they discuss firearm safety with patients by showing more respect for the viewpoints of gun owners, according to an article by a University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty member published in the Aug. 4 issue of JAMA.

Luis Fernando Santana, a scientist with an international reputation for his work on arrhythmias and the physiology of calcium channels in smooth and cardiac muscle, has been named professor and chair of the Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology at UC Davis School of Medicine. [en español]

Monique Atwal grew up on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley town of Selma. In high school she joined a program called Doctor’s Academy, which is dedicated to encouraging a student’s interest in health professions, especially in the valley.

A diet high in refined carbohydrates may lead to an increased risk for new-onset depression in postmenopausal women, according to a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. [en español]

Cardiologists at UC Davis are the first in Northern California to treat the major risk of stroke that comes with atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common form of arrhythmia, with a device that blocks blood clots from traveling from the heart to the head.

Glen Xiong, associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Davis, will address “Sleep and the Aging Brain” during the August 2015 UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Community Discovery Lecture Series in Walnut Creek.

UC Davis health economists have for the first time projected the total costs of caring for all people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the U.S. for the current calendar year and in 10 years if effective interventions and preventive treatments for the condition are not identified and widely available.

The UC Davis Department of Pediatrics and Division of Neonatology will partner with the NEC society in hosting the first national conference on necrotizing enterocolitis, set for spring of 2017.The event will bring together physicians, scientists, and parents from across North America with expertise in necrotizing enterocolitic (NEC) for the first time.

The trauma center at UC Davis has been re-verified as level 1 by the American College of Surgeons, making it one of only three trauma centers in California with level I verification in both pediatric and adult trauma care.

The young and the young at heart are invited to a free outdoor summer concert featuring music by the Bay Area band Lovefool, a special player appearance from the Sacramento Republic FC and a Kids’ Zone.

Leaders of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis announced plans to construct a new education building in Sacramento. Betty Irene Moore Hall will be the fourth structure in the educational core of the campus and will house graduate programs of the School of Nursing, as well as support interprofessional education for other health science education on the UC Davis Sacramento campus.

Fitz-Roy Curry, distinguished professor emeritus of physiology and membrane biology and biomedical engineering at UC Davis, was elected to the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, a non-governmental organization that includes Norwegian and foreign members who support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.

On Wednesday, July 29, the public is invited to visit the UC Davis Medical Center campus, purchase a Dairy Queen Blizzard and support sick and injured children at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, in recognition of Miracle Treat Day.

The state stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), today approved funding a UC Davis Health System research team to conduct a clinical trial using bioengineered stem cells to treat HIV patients suffering from lymphoma, one of the deadly conditions associated with the disease.

As disabling as its delusions and hallucinations, psychosis’ devastating toll on memory arises from dysfunction of frontal and temporal lobe regions in the brain that rob sufferers of the ability to make associative connections, a UC Davis study has found, pinpointing potential target areas for treatments to help the more than 3.2 million Americans for whom medication quells the voices and visions, but not the struggle to remember. [en español]

From new ways to stimulate the brain, to new strategies to monitor and communicate with individuals with psychosis, UC Davis neuroscientists are leaders in understanding the brain and developing new treatments for mental-health disorders.

Iannis Adamopoulos, a researcher dedicated to studying diseases of the immune and skeletal systems, has received a $200,000 grant from the National Psoriasis Foundation to improve treatments for psoriatic arthritis.

In a new policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) makes recommendations on the use of telemedicine in children’s health care and how it will impact the pediatric workforce. UC Davis division chief of pediatric critical care medicine and head of the UC Davis pediatric telemedicine program was lead author of the report.

Regina Gandour-Edwards, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, has received the Michele Raible Undergraduate Medical Education Distinguished Teaching Award from the Association of Pathology Chairs.

Imaging the brain, collecting clinical measurements and biological specimens, and generating an unprecedented volume of data for more than 1,700 participants, the groundbreaking Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) has painted a detailed picture of the brain’s progression from cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s disease, often over many years, demonstrating that while amyloid brain deposits are a leading factor in dementia, there is considerable heterogeneity in cognitive decline in aging.

Kids in bright yellow UC Davis summer camp shirts gathered at the rock climbing wall at the UC Davis ARC on Friday. But this was not an ordinary group of campers. They were from the UC Davis Diabetes Summer Camp, now in its second year, which provides friendship, fun and diabetes education for patients battling Type I Diabetes.

Falls, the leading cause of non-fatal and fatal injuries and a leading cause of death among the elderly, will be the topic of the July UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Community Discovery Series lecture. The speaker will be Christy Adams, UC Davis Health System Trauma Prevention and Outreach Program coordinator.

Sam's Club on Power Inn Road in Sacramento was named the #1 Sam's Club store for raising the most money for Children's Miracle Network in the country during its 2015 campaign. The store raised $42,847.75, with proceeds staying locally and benefitting UC Davis Children’s Hospital.

UC Davis Medical Center has again earned “Most Wired” designation as one of the nation’s top health leaders in information technology. The 2015 award is based on a national survey conducted by Hospitals & Health Networks.

Under-represented minorities fare as well as others in an increasingly popular method of selecting medical school students known as the Multiple Mini Interview, or MMI, according to new research from the UC Davis School of Medicine.

Scientists at the University of California, Davis, have identified a key mechanism in neuropathic pain. The discovery could eventually benefit millions of patients with chronic pain from trauma, diabetes, shingles, multiple sclerosis or other conditions that cause nerve damage.

Low flu vaccination rates, medication compliance and limited access to primary care providers have contributed to poor outcomes for pediatric asthma in California, say UC Davis pediatricians Ulfat Shaikh and Robert Byrd, who have published an extensive study describing the challenges faced by children with asthma in California. [en español]

Erik Fernandez y Garcia, associate professor of clinical pediatrics at UC Davis Children's Hospital, has been appointed a commissioner on the California Task Force on the Status of Maternal Mental Health Care. The formation of this group was announced at a press conference today, presented by 2020 Mom (formerly the California Maternal Mental Health Collaborative) and the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at Fresno State.

The 12th Annual UC Davis Summer Institute on Neurodevelopmental Disorders — one of the nation's premier gatherings of health professionals, educators and families interested in research and best practices in the field of neurodevelopmental disorders — will be held Friday, Aug. 7, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the UC Davis Conference Center, 550 Alumni Lane, on the University of California, Davis campus. The Institute is sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (CEDD) of the UC Davis MIND Institute and the UC Davis Health System Office of Continuing Medical Education.

Since the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, intelligence tests have attempted to measure human intellectual capabilities. The most common assigns an intelligence quotient, or “IQ” score for normal intelligence in the 90-to-110 point range. Below-normal intelligence falls below 80 IQ points.

The parents of Scott Santana, who at age 17 became an organ donor following his death due to a car accident in 2011, have spearheaded the acquisition of a nearly two-ton memorial rock inscribed with a poem to honor all organ and tissue donors in the Sacramento region.

Gary Leiserowitz, chief of gynecologic oncology and interim chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, received the Western Association of Gynecologic Oncologists (WAGO) James F. Nolan Award June 12 at the 2015 Annual Meeting in Santa Rosa.

For the first time, 25 students in the physician assistant and nurse practitioner master’s-degree programs collected degrees through the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis this graduation season, along with six Doctor of Philosophy and 25 Master of Science ― Leadership students.

Researchers have identified 44 proteins in the blood of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy that occur at significantly different concentrations in comparison to healthy individuals of the same age.

The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM), a daily play-and routines-based intervention for young children with autism that has been found to result in significant developmental gains, is offering a series of workshops in August.

An early intervention program for toddlers with autism spectrum disorder improves their intellectual abilities and reduces autism symptoms -- and those results persist years after the children originally received treatment, a new study shows.

UC Davis researchers have identified the molecular interactions that allow capsaicin to activate the body’s primary receptor for sensing heat and pain, paving the way for the design of more selective and effective drugs to relieve pain. Their work appeared online June 8 in the journal Nature Chemical Biology. [中文 Chinese]

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation’s top hospitals in five pediatric subspecialties. Together with Shriners Hospital for Children – Northern California, its longstanding partner in caring for children with burns, spinal cord injuries, urological issues and orthopaedic disorders, UC Davis Children's Hospital ranked 29th in orthopaedics and 20th in urology. UC Davis also ranked 17th in neonatology, 33rd in diabetes and endocrinology and 45th in neurology and neurosurgery.

May 2015

Gerald Kayingo, a physician assistant and assistant clinical professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, received the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) Research Publishing Award at the association’s annual convention this week in San Francisco. He teaches in the school’s physician assistant and nurse practitioner programs.

From hospital readmission rates and simulation training to family planning for rural women and pediatric triage assessment, the scope of work undertaken by students at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis ranges from clinical to community, from birth to end of life. Gaduate students pursuing doctoral and master’s degrees present their scholarly work at the 2015 Academic Symposium, June 5 on the UC Davis Sacramento campus.

Restricting access to firearms for people who misuse alcohol could prevent firearm violence, but policies that more clearly define alcohol misuse should be developed to facilitate enforcement, according to a review of existing research and public policies by the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program.

Do microbes grow differently on the International Space Station than they do on Earth? Results from the growth of microbes collected by citizen scientists in Project MERCCURI indicate that most behave similarly in both places.

Researchers at UC Davis have conducted a comprehensive study to determine whether pediatric telemedicine consultations with rural emergency departments save money compared to telephone consults. The answer is a resounding yes. While telemedicine systems are expensive to install and maintain, they more than pay their way, saving an average $4,662 per use. The study was published in the journal Medical Decision Making. [en español]

New U.S. News & World Report hospital ratings for five common procedures and conditions show that UC Davis Medical Center is a “high performer” for heart bypass surgery, hip replacements, heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and meets expected standards of care for knee replacements.

The UC Davis CAARE Center recently hosted an anniversary reception to honor the children and families served over the last 25 years and the staff and community partners who have dedicated their lives to the prevention and treatment of child abuse. The event was held April 30 at the UC Davis MIND Institute’s auditorium.

Early mobility and exercise have been shown to help patients recover faster and decrease long-term effects of delirium, a common condition of pediatric patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). UC Davis Children’s Hospital has today launched a Pediatric Early Mobility Program to help improve recovery times, shorten patient stays, reduce pain and delirium among PICU patients.

Scott Fishman, chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and professor of anesthesiology at UC Davis Health System, has been awarded by the American Pain Society (APS) for his outstanding educational achievements in pain management.

An international team of scientists, led by UC Davis nephrologist Robert Weiss, have used a sophisticated combination of proteomics and metabolomics to show how renal cell carcinoma (RCC) reprograms its metabolism and evades the immune system. In addition, the study found that cancer grade has a major impact on this reprogramming. These results, published in the journal Cancer Research, point to new therapeutic options for this particularly deadly cancer.

California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development has awarded more than $600,000 in grants to UC Davis’ Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Training programs to boost primary health-care workforce training in California.

New research conducted by the UC Davis MIND Institute on a large cohort of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder has found differences in the underlying biology of their brains, and in their behavior, that may help explain how the condition affects a little-studied and poorly understood population of children: girls. [en español]

Surgeons at UC Davis Health System are testing an innovative method of limiting cognitive decline in patients with Parkinson’s disease. The treatment — deep brain stimulation, or DBS — involves delivering low levels of electrical stimulation to a part of the brain that controls the abilities to think, plan and remember.

On April 15, 2015, three UC Davis leaders in research joined more than forty scientists from across the University of California (UC) system and representatives from the biomedical industry to discuss plans for strengthening UC’s position in drug, device and diagnostics development.

Peter Yellowlees, professor in the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has been elected vice president of the American Telemedicine Association, which promotes the use of advanced remote telecommunications for health-care and consultation.

UC Davis Children's Hospital was the focus of News 10's "Breakfast on the Job" segment this morning from 5 to 7 a.m. The segment honored UC Davis Children's Hospital employees and discussed job opportunities currently available at the hospital.

Researchers at UC Davis have developed a new intervention that identifies potentially depressed mothers and encourages them to seek treatment. The Motivating our Mothers (MOM) program takes a unique approach, relying on pediatricians rather than the mother’s doctor for diagnosis. In the study, mothers were given a short survey to assess whether they needed additional care. Those who identified depression symptoms were then coached by a research assistant to seek further help. [en español]

Jared Jagdeo, UC Davis assistant professor of dermatology, has received the 2015 Dr. Horace Furumoto Innovations Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS).

Cable television channel Animal Planet was at UC Davis Children’s Hospital last week to produce an episode of the series “Monsters Inside Me” about Jordan Herbst, the Bishop teenager who in 2013 became infected and survived hantavirus, a life-threatening and rare infection.

The University of California, Davis and The Permanente Medical Group today launched a new initiative at UC Davis School of Medicine dedicated to building the next generation of physicians committed to advancing Latino health. [en español]

The number of surgeries performed on terminally ill cancer patients has not dropped in recent years ­, despite more attention to the importance of less invasive care for these patients to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life. But new research from UC Davis also finds that the morbidity and mortality among patients with terminal cancer has declined because surgeons are selecting to operate on healthier patients.

UC Davis Children's Hospital is joining Jennifer Lopez in asking the community to “Put Your Money Where the Miracles Are” to support children’s hospitals. Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, of which UC Davis Children's Hospital is a member, is kicking off a new campaign to bring awareness to the importance of donations to children’s hospitals. [en español]

April 2015

Leaders at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis host the Sacramento premiere of The American Nurse at the Crest Theatre. The event, in conjunction with National Nurse’s Week, celebrates the dedication of nursing professionals. School of Nursing Founding Dean Heather M. Young, along with current graduate students, discusses the evolving roles within the nursing profession.

The Leapfrog Group, a non-profit coalition of some of the country’s largest employers and health-care purchasers, has again awarded UC Davis Medical Center the highest grade possible, an “A,” on its most recent Hospital Safety Score, an evaluation that ranks hospitals nationwide on the likelihood that its patients will be free from preventable harm during their inpatient stays. This marks the fourth reporting period in a row that UC Davis has achieved the distinction.

John M. Boone, a UC Davis medical physicist and professor of radiology, has been awarded a $2.88 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to further develop and research computed tomography (CT) to detect breast cancer.

Marjorie Solomon, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and a with a faculty member at the UC Davis MIND Institute and Imaging Research Center, has been named to the Marvin "Buzz" Oates and Family Endowed Chair in Lifespan Development in Autism in the UC Davis School of Medicine.

Katherine Kim, assistant professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, was selected for one year of seed funding from the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) as part of the 2015 CITRIS Seed Fund Awards.

Reigning Miss America Kira Kazantsev spent her day off at UC Davis Children’s Hospital last Friday. The 23-year-old New York resident was on spring break, but that didn’t stop her from making the trip out west to visit Sacramento and spend time with the pediatric patients on Davis 7.

It’s a paradox: Diabetics with above-normal weight use health care less and report overall better physical health than their diabetic counterparts with normal weight, according to two new studies from UC Davis Health System.

UC Davis investigators have settled a long-standing controversy surrounding the molecular basis of an inherited disorder that historically affected Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe but now also arises in other populations of Semitic descent, particularly families from Saudi Arabia.

Donald M. Null, an internationally renowned expert in neonatal ventilation, has joined the faculty of the UC Davis School of Medicine as medical director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UC Davis Children's Hospital.

Researchers at the University of Michigan and UC Davis have solved a genetic mystery that has afflicted three unrelated families, and possibly others, for generations. These families have been plagued by a variety of congenital eye malformations, including small eyes with poor vision and the complete absence of eyes. But until now, no one could figure out the genetic basis for these conditions. [en español]

More than two dozen UC Davis nursing faculty, researchers and students will present their scholarly work focusing on health-care quality, equity and access at the Western Institute of Nursing 48th Annual Communicating Nursing Research Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from April 22-25.

In a presentation scheduled for May 20 Virginia Rauh, a researcher from Columbia University, will discuss her studies of the effects of prenatal exposure to chlorpyrifos, a common insecticide and neurotoxicant, in a group of inner-city minority children.

Some of the nation’s leading experts in addressing one of the most troubling issues of our time — the increased incidence of violence at work, school and on campuses — will hold a one-day conference on confronting employee and student mental-health issues from both the psychiatric and the legal perspectives.

Researchers studying a genetic disorder that in childhood causes anxiety and learning differences, but in adolescence or early adulthood results in schizophrenia in nearly one third of those affected, will investigate how emotional and intellectual challenges impact the development of early psychosis symptoms in this very high-risk population, through a new five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine have entered into a collaboration with Foundation Medicine, a leading molecular information company. The collaboration brings comprehensive genomic profiling into standard of care at UC Davis, allowing physicians to prescribe the most effective, targeted cancer treatments to patients based on the genomic information specific to each individual’s cancer.

UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center has been selected to be part of a $20 million “dream team” to attack the number-one cancer killer in America, lung cancer. The announcement was made today in Philadelphia at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, a scientific partner to Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C).

Public health specialists need to look beyond traditional solutions — such as expanding access to health insurance and primary care — to increase flu vaccination rates among older African Americans and Hispanics, according to a new study from UC Davis Health System and UCLA Health System.

Lucy Ogbu-Nwobodo, a student at the UC Davis School of Medicine, is among the 2015 recipients of The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, the premier graduate school fellowship for immigrants and children of immigrants.

Brent Foster, a UC Davis graduate student of biomedical engineering, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to develop software that can refine diagnostic imaging of the wrist.

The UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center, one of only 27 research centers designated by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Aging, has established a new clinic in the East Bay in Walnut Creek.

David A. Bennett, director of the Rush University Alzheimer's Disease Center, will discuss "Reducing Your Risk for Alzheimer's Disease: Building a Better Brain as We Age," during the May UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center Community Engagement Lecture Series presentation.

Three master’s-degree students in the Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Master of Science — Leadership Graduate Degree Program at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis took home top awards at the 2015 UC Davis Interdisciplinary Graduate and Professional Student Symposium.

Julie Freischlag, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, yesterday participated in a roundtable discussion at the White House on educating tomorrow’s health leaders about the impacts of climate change on human health.

Researchers at UC Davis have found that a gene, which is not active in some mothers, produces a breast milk sugar that influences the development of the community of gut bacteria in thier infants. The sugars produced by these mothers, called "secretors," are not digested by the infant, but instead nourish specific bacteria that colonize their babies' guts soon after birth.

Marc Schenker, a UC Davis global health specialist and international authority on occupational health hazards, especially among immigrant populations, has published a book of photographs that captures the diversity, humanity, traditions and beauty of Mexican life.

Regardless of their racial, ethnic, educational or socioeconomic background, women seek help for a frustrating — and ubiquitous — feature of becoming "a woman of a certain age:" the need be close to the women's room.

A town hall meeting to discuss the proposed UC Davis School of Population and Global Health will be held on Thursday, April 16, from noon to 1 p.m., at the Education Building, 4610 X Street, Room 1204, in Sacramento.

As part of national Meaningful Use initiative, which aims to improve the coordination of care and electronic exchange of patient information among hospitals, labs, physicians and other health care organizations, providers must be able to receive and incorporate structured lab results from clinical laboratories using universal code systems for identifying laboratory and clinical observations, specifically LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) and SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms).

The micro RNA miR-22 has long been known for its ability to suppress cancer. However, questions remain about how it achieves this feat. For example, which molecules are regulating miR-22, and which are miR22 targets?

The symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) most often are described in terms of differences in social-engagement and communication. But recent research has found that ASD also involves basic differences in the nature of learning. Recognizing these learning differences has helped to advance research, assessment and, most importantly, interventions for affected children.

David G. Amaral, director of research at the UC Davis MIND Institute, has been named the new editor-in-chief of Autism Research, the peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) and its publishing partner, Wiley. Amaral succeeds Anthony J. Bailey, the journal’s first editor-in-chief, who will step down at the end of March after nearly six years in the position.

John S. Werner, a UC Davis neuroscientist and international authority on visual perception, has been selected to receive the 2015 Verriest Medal from the International Colour Vision Society for his contributions to understanding the structural and functional basis of color vision, how and why vision changes across the life span, and factors that contribute to loss of vision associated with disease. He will receive the award at the society’s biennial symposium in Sendai, Japan, on July 4.

March 2015

Researchers at UC Davis have illuminated an important distinction between mice and humans: how human livers heal. The difference centers on a protein called PPARα, which activates liver regeneration. Normally, mouse PPARα is far more active and efficient than the human form, allowing mice to quickly regenerate damaged livers. However, the research shows that protein fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) can boost the regenerative effects of human PPARα.

Simeon Boyd, UC Davis professor of genetics and pediatrics, has received a nearly $4 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to lead a team of physicians and scientists from more than 10 centers in the United States and seven international sites, including Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Italy and the United Kingdom, to study craniosynostosis, the premature fusion of the bony plates of the skull in infants.

Faculty with the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis are among those awarded mental-health research grants from the UC Davis Behavioral Health Center of Excellence. Assistant Professor Carolina Apesoa-Varano received $200,000 to lead a study on Latina caregivers and Associate Adjunct Professor Alberto Odor will collaborate on a study applying technology to language barriers.

On Monday, April 13, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., the UC Davis MIND Institute will partner with the Sacramento Poetry Center to present the 6th Annual Poetry & Art Night. The event will feature original works by poets who connect with the experience of living with autism. Attendees also will view the MIND Institute collection of paintings and drawings by artists with neurodevelopmental disorders.

The state stem cell agency, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), today awarded a pair of grants totaling more than $7 million to UC Davis School of Medicine researchers who are working to develop stem cell therapies for spina bifida and chronic diabetic wounds.

Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, founder and director of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities and a professor of clinical internal medicine, has been honored by his medical school alma mater, the Autónomous University of Guadalajara (UAG), Mexico, for his exemplary work in medicine and service to his country. [en español]

The ADHD Program at the UC Davis MIND Institute has been selected to participate in an initiative that will link people with the condition in Sacramento and beyond with clinicians, researchers, advocates, support groups and each other, through an innovative privacy-assured online platform called Platform for Engaging Everyone Responsibly, or PEER.

In an editorial posted online today in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, two practicing emergency medicine physicians from the University of California, Davis, and Brown University — both thought leaders at the forefront of finding solutions to the public health crisis of gun violence — urge their colleagues to take direct action to protect the health and safety of patients and communities.

The recently established UC Davis Behavioral Health Center has announced new two-year grants as part of its 2015-2017 Pilot Award Program. The awards, granted to 16 investigators across UC Davis schools, colleges, departments, centers and programs, in Sacramento and Davis, support projects in the areas of behavioral health public policy, treatment and basic science research. Together, they total approximately $3.7 million.

Katherine Kim, assistant professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, presents today at The Institute of Medicine, Roundtable on Health Literacy workshop, “Health Literacy and Health Information Technology,” in Washington, District of Columbia. Kim’s research on adapting technology for use by Native American populations is among topics examining how technology is used to make health decisions.

While the overall death rate from firearm violence has remained unchanged for more than a decade, the patterns for suicide and homicide have changed dramatically, a UC Davis study on the epidemiology of gun violence from 2003 to 2012 has found. The study was published today in the Annual Review of Public Health.

In what was the first-ever convening of its kind, medical school leaders from across the nation met in Boston last week to discuss how academic physicians and scientists can have thriving careers with better work-life flexibility in an era of austere academic budget cuts.

Match Day is an event that takes place simultaneously at medical schools throughout the nation. Fourth-year medical students gather to find out where they have "matched" for their residency training after graduating in May.

Randi Hagerman, medical director of the UC Davis MIND Institute, has received the prestigious International Sisley-Jerome Lejeune Award 2014 from the Paris-based Jérôme Lejeune Foundation, for her groundbreaking work developing targeted treatments for individuals with fragile X syndrome, a leading cause of intellectual disability and the leading single-gene cause of autism spectrum disorder.

The American Cancer Society, in partnership with the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and PBS station KVIE, will host a free community preview screening of CANCER: THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES on March 25 at Sacramento’s Crest Theatre

A study published online today in JAMA Neurology that finds associations between reduced hippocampal volume (HVa) and being male, but not the gene APOE ɛ4, suggests that there are multiple factors contributing to cognitive decline throughout adulthood, according to an accompanying commentary by UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center Director Charles DeCarli.

Twenty-eight IHOP restaurants from 33 counties in Northern California raised more than $100,000 for UC Davis Children’s Hospital this month. IHOP guests enjoyed complimentary pancakes and were encouraged to make a donation to benefit UC Davis Children’s Hospital, the region’s local Children’s Miracle Network hospital at the tenth annual National Pancake Day on March 3, which raised funds for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Davis School of Medicine among America's best medical schools for the quality of its educational programs in primary care and research. The news magazine's annual listing appeared today on the publication's website and will be published in its guidebook “Best Graduate Schools 2016.”

For the first time, U.S. News & World Report ranks the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis as among the best in the country for master’s-degree nursing programs in the 2016 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools.

Former California Senate Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, who recently joined UC Davis Health System as director of policy and advocacy for the UC Davis Behavioral Health Center of Excellence and visiting professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, will present two special lectures in April.

Mani Pavuluri, founding director of the Pediatric Mood Disorders Clinic and the Pediatric Brain Research and Intervention Center at the University of Illinois, Chicago, will address brain dysfunction in pediatric bipolar disorder during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series address.

How imagining technology illuminates the differences between the workings of the brain in children and adults with reading disability, or dyslexia, and those of people without the disorder, will be the topic of the March 2015 UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

Russell Lim, director of Diversity Education and Training for the UC Davis Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has received the 2015 Kun-Po Soo Award from the American Psychiatric Foundation, for his contributions to understanding the importance of addressing culture in mental-health issues.

Candidates from this spring’s graduating class of the Doctor of Philosophy program at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis announced a $27,156 endowed scholarship fund for future students of the program, beginning this fall.

Eleven staff from Orbis International, including ophthalmologists and nurses, will further enhance their critical-care skills and build their abilities to work as a team when they train at the UC Davis Center for Virtual Care.

Darrell Steinberg, former Senate pro tempore for the state of California, has joined the faculty of the UC Davis School of Medicine as director of policy and advocacy for the recently launched UC Davis Behavioral Health Center of Excellence.

Researchers at UC Davis have developed and characterized a molecule that interferes with the internal regulation of cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct. This novel mechanism was found to be effective against glioma cells – responsible for a usually fatal type of brain cancer – and could be applicable to other highly aggressive cancers.

February 2015

Health-care providers such as nurses, physicians, mental-health specialists and clinical social workers will have the opportunity to learn about the unique health needs of LGBTQI patients and their families during an upcoming conference at UC Davis School of Medicine.

The UC Davis Huntington’s Disease Center, whose compassionate patient care and research expertise have made it a beacon of hope for people with Huntington’s disease throughout Northern California and beyond, has been acknowledged by the national society committed to the values that it so ably upholds the Huntington’s Disease Society of America — as a Level 1 Huntington’s Disease Center of Excellence.

Welltopia, a new website launched today by the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI), offers a wide range of essential resources to help Californians, especially those on limited incomes, build healthier lives and communities.

Undocumented farmworkers are half as likely as those who are documented to use Medicaid, the federal health insurance program available to low-income individuals and families, according to a new study from UC Davis Health System.

Hispanics tend to develop alcoholic liver disease (ALD) — a common cause of liver-disease deaths in the U.S. — between four and 12 years earlier than non-Hispanic Caucasians or African Americans, according to a UC Davis Health System study.

Kenneth W. Kizer, distinguished professor and director of the Institute for Population Health Improvement, has been chosen by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) to sit on a five-member panel of management experts convened to evaluate the planned restructuring of the national Bureau of the Census. The evaluation is directed by the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital patients felt the love this morning, as Star 106.5 in Sacramento delivered 85 bags filled with homemade Valentine’s cards sent by radio listeners. The station also donated stuffed animals, coloring books, stickers and games for patients.

A new compound discovered by a team of UC Davis investigators has potent actions against production of a chemical that is implicated in the development of chronic pain following a peripheral nerve injury in the spinal cord.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis has received a $150,000 grant from the Office of Statewide Health and Planning to continue developing an integrative case-based learning curriculum for its clinical programs.

Elena Siegel, an assistant professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, received a $299,000 grant from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Center for Regulatory Excellence Grant Program to develop and test a resource manual that directors of nursing can use as a reference to ensure the registered nurses safely and effectively delegate day-to-day tasks in nursing home settings.

UC Davis faculty, staff and students will show their supersized support for heart health on National Wear Red Day as they take over a Davis campus athletic field to create a huge heart formed by humans. As the crowd gathers, the Battle Heart Disease Fair will offer resources for heart-healthy living, radio station 102.5 KSFM will play lively music, Zumba teachers will get the crowd moving, and one of the nation’s foremost heart-disease experts will test everyone’s “heart smarts.”

Physician and author Michael Finkelstein, known as the “slow medicine doctor,” will bring his unique insights about cancer to the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center Auditorium Tuesday, Feb. 17 for a talk he calls “Transform the war into a treasure hunt.”

An information sheet for women being treated for severe acne improves understanding of contraceptive effectiveness and ways to avoid pregnancy and medication-induced birth defects, a study published today in JAMA Dermatology has found.

The UC Davis Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (CEDD) will hold a panel discussion on “Developing and Maintaining Positive Relationships in the Community and the Family” for individuals with children with special needs on Saturday, Feb. 7, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Please note: This discussion will be presented entirely in Spanish. The presentation will be held in the MIND Institute auditorium, at 2825 50th St., Sacramento. It is free and open to the public and no reservations are required. Seating is first-come, first-served. No children will be allowed.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded a pair of $1.8 million grants to two UC Davis scientists to develop better tools for enabling physicians to assess the safety and efficacy of bioengineered tissues used to treat cardiovascular disease and bone and cartilage repair.

A therapy currently under development for spinal cord injuries has been shown to stimulate nerve regeneration in the heart and provide resistance to arrhythmias following a heart attack, according to a new study published today in the journal Nature Communications.

State and local public health and hospital officials have confirmed that the patient transported by specialized ambulance and admitted to UC Davis Medical Center early Thursday who exhibited symptoms consistent with a viral illness including Ebola, and with a history of travel to an Ebola-affected country, has tested negative for the Ebola virus.

UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department will continue to train individuals to become certified child life specialists at UC Davis Children's Hospital, thanks to a generous donation by Spirit Halloween Superstores.

The journey that scientists follow to reach the development of new medications for children with autism spectrum disorder can follow different routes, each leading to different destinations. An examination of those pathways is the subject of the February UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

Ten months after California legislators enacted a controversial law mandating that radiologists notify women if they have dense breast tissue, UC Davis researchers have found that half of primary care physicians are still unfamiliar with the law and many don’t feel comfortable answering breast density-related questions from patients.

"Miles" Keiser, though nicknamed "Tiny" by his family, an infant treated at UC Davis Children’s Hospital in 2011 is having a big effect on the lives of children with congenital heart disease in Sacramento and on his community.

The UC Davis Hospice Program and UC Davis Children's Hospital Bereavement Program will offer an eight-week Young Adult Bereavement Art Group for individuals 17 to 24 who are coping with the recent loss of a loved one.

UC Davis professor Moon Chen’s research on the under-representation of minorities in clinical trials appears in the American Society in Clinical Oncology (ASCO)’s annual cancer progress report released Tuesday.

A life-saving program that helps to prevent sudden cardiac arrest in children and teens has now arrived in California. UC Davis Children’s Hospital has become the first California affiliate for Project ADAM (Automated Defibrillators in Adam’s Memory), a non-profit organization dedicated to establishing comprehensive defibrillation programs in schools across the country.

Historically known as heroes who put people back together after accidents, trauma surgeons today perform a broad array of surgical procedures, are involved in planning patient care and treat patients at hospital bedsides in addition to operating rooms, a UC Davis Health System study has found.

A new device that can rapidly concentrate and extract young cells from irrigation fluid used during orthopaedic surgery holds promise for improving the delivery of stem cell therapy in cases of non-healing fractures.

Garen J. Wintemute, one of the nation’s foremost scholars addressing gun violence as a public-health problem, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from the California Aggie Alumni Association for his exemplary professional achievements and service.

Aubyn Stahmer, an expert in the translation of evidence-based autism research to community-based practice and delivery, has joined the UC Davis MIND Institute as an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Patients started on prescription painkillers who have substance-use disorders or who frequently contact their doctors’ offices are at greater risk of having their medication doses increase early in therapy, also increasing their risk of opioid-related overdose or death, UC Davis Health System researchers have found.

Harnessing the power of whole genome analysis and further defining the role of pathologists in this new era of medicine is the topic of the 2015 Benjamin Highman Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UC Davis Health System.

Blaine Christiansen, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at UC Davis Health System, received a 2014 Junior Faculty Osteoporosis Research Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

December 2014

J. Nilas Young, UC Davis chief of cardiothoracic surgery, has published a landmark article on medical humanitarian aid, detailing his 25 years of experience establishing six cardiac surgery sites in Russia. The study is published in the December 2014 issue of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Using modified human stem cells, a team of UC Davis scientists has developed an improved gene therapy strategy that in animal models shows promise as a functional cure for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. The achievement, which involves an improved technique to purify populations of HIV-resistant stem cells, opens the door for human clinical trials that were recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Pediatric nurses have partnered with a local elementary school student council and PTA for the 15th year providing holiday food baskets to Families nominated by Bancroft elementary school. The food drive and distribution occurs Dec. 15-19.

Santa took a break from his toy-making schedule to visit UC Davis Children’s Hospital earlier this month to bring much-needed holiday cheer. The magical visit was made possible through the UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department and Macy’s/AFLAC.

CBS Radio Mix96 and Children's Miracle Network raised more than $67,000 in their first "Mix For Miracles" radiothon for UC Davis Children's Hospital. Mix96, 96.1FM broadcasted live each day from 6 a.m. - 10 a.m. in the playroom on Davis 7 and continued the broadcast from 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. Dec. 9-11.

Thomas C. Südhof, recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, will address his research on how defects in a ‘glue’ that binds together proteins at the neuronal synapses may play a role in the etiology of autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia and other psychiatric neurodevelopmental conditions, during the first 2015 UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series address in January.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a $1,198,384 grant to UC Davis pediatrician James Marcin to investigate how telemedicine consultations in emergency departments impact clinical outcomes, including cost effectiveness, compared with telephone consultations.

The UC Davis Multidisciplinary ALS Clinic has been named an ALS Association Certified Treatment Center of Excellence, in acknowledgement of its meeting the highest levels of established national standards of care for the management of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were more than twice as likely to have been exposed in utero to preeclampsia, and the likelihood of an autism diagnosis was even greater if the mother experienced more severe disease, a large study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found.

CBS Radio Mix96 and Children's Miracle Network is partnering to put on their first "Mix For Miracles" radiothon at UC Davis Children's Hospital. Mix96, 96.1FM will broadcast live each day from 6 a.m. - 10 a.m. in the playroom on Davis 7 and continue the broadcast from 10 a.m.- 8 p.m. Dec. 9-11.

America’s Game®, Wheel of Fortune, is once again entertaining viewers with its popular “Secret Santa Sweepstakes” presented by Walmart, and this year the at-home viewers aren’t the only winners. A Children’s Miracle Network Hospital of each winner’s choice will receive a cash donation matching his or her winnings with a minimum donation of $300,000 during the course of the sweepstakes. UC Davis Children’s Hospital could be one of those winners.

The UC Davis MIND Institute on Wednesday celebrated the achievements of Medical Director Randi Hagerman, who in October received the C. Anderson Aldrich Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, one of the most prestigious awards in the United States for a pediatrician.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified UC Davis Medical Center as one of the 35 U.S. hospitals designated as an Ebola treatment center. The designation, announced Dec. 2, was a collaborative decision made by state and local health authorities and University of California (UC) leadership. UC San Francisco was also designated, with the three remaining UC medical centers expected to receive treatment-center designation soon.

Hundreds of participants in UC Davis MIND Institute research and their families will head into the woods to “Explore the Great Outdoors” during its 12th Annual Thank You Party on Saturday, Dec. 6, from 1 to 4 p.m. The party is held to thank the children, adolescents, adults and their families who make the MIND Institute's groundbreaking research into autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions possible.

UC Davis Medical Center ranks among The Leapfrog Group's list of Top Hospitals for 2014, an elite distinction that recognizes UC Davis for meeting tough national standards for safety and quality. The annual award, widely acknowledged as one of the most competitive awards a U.S. hospital can receive, is given to the highest performing hospitals participating in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey.

Natacha Akshoomoff, UC San Diego associate professor of psychiatry, will discuss “How the diagnosis of autism helps us learn more about autism,” during the December UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer series presentation.

Disparities in mental-health treatment are known to be associated with patients’ racial and ethnic backgrounds. Now, a large study by researchers with UC Davis has found one possible reason for those disparities: Racial and ethnic minorities are less likely to be assessed and referred for treatment by their medical providers.

November 2014

More than 100 scientists, including a team of UC Davis molecular biologists, have sequenced the genomes of 16 Anopheles mosquito species to help define the characteristics that make some of them uniquely capable of transmitting malaria parasites to humans.

Beginning in February, the UC Davis MIND Institute will offer the Adult Social Knowledge (ASK) Workshop for individuals 18 to 35 with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder, such as high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome. The workshop’s aims are to provide adults with autism an opportunity to practice their social skills in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere while having fun.

Researchers at UC Davis and other institutions have found that diets rich in whole walnuts or walnut oil slowed prostate cancer growth in mice. In addition, both walnuts and walnut oil reduced cholesterol and increased insulin sensitivity.

In its first clinical application in pediatric patients, an investigational medication developed and manufactured at UC Davis has been found to effectively treat children with life-threatening and difficult-to-control epileptic seizures without side effects, according to a research report by scientists at UC Davis and Northwestern University.

UC Davis medical oncologist Jonathan Riess is the recipient of a 2014 Young Innovators Team Award for Lung Cancer Research, and will share a $500,000 for translational lung cancer research with two other physician-scientists.

Ester Carolina Apesoa-Varano, an assistant professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, recently released her first book Conflicted Health Care: Professionalism and Caring in an Urban Hospital, published by Vanderbilt University Press.

As the largest Ebola epidemic in history continues in West Africa, UC Davis Health System is prepared to safely screen, isolate and care for a patient who arrives at the medical center suffering from the disease.

UC Davis Children's Hospital’sHalloween celebration took place Friday on the pediatrics unit. Patients and staff got into the Halloween spirit with costumes, games and trick-or-treating. The special event was made possible by the Davis 7 pediatric nurses and the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department.

Treatment for early stage breast cancer is highly effective, and for many women considering treatment choices, chemotherapy may add little to an already high long-term survival rate. Joy Melnikow, professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and Director of the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research at UC Davis, is working to define the potential long-term harms of chemotherapy for these patients, so they can be weighed against the potential benefits.

Clinical resource nurse Stacey Salvato, who works on Davis 7 Pediatrics, received third place for her clinical care poster at this year's 30th annual Pediatric Nursing Conference in National Harbor, Md.

Researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute will develop and evaluate tests designed to measure and track changes in the cognitive functioning of people who typically are difficult to assess accurately: those with an intellectual disability, formerly termed mental retardation. The research will be funded through a new, five-year, $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded a $2.7 million grant to UC Davis researchers to investigate how the so-called Western diet, which is high in fat and sugar, increases the risk of developing liver and gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. In addition, the researchers will study whether bifidobacteria, a common family of bacteria in the human gut, can be enriched to prevent cancer.

Kay Redfield Jamison, Dalio Family Professor in Mood Disorders and co-director of the Mood Disorders Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, will discuss "Professional and Personal Perspectives on Bipolar Illness," during a lecture on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 5 p.m. in the auditorium of the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St.

A team of UC Davis scientists has found that administering a small molecule – purmorphamine – in animal models after a stroke results in multiple protective effects, including reducing the size of the stroke, decreasing inflammation and increasing markers for nerve regeneration.

The purchase of women's shoes, purses and accessories can help make miracles for UC Davis Children's Hospital patients as East Sacramento retailer The Pink House donates 20 percent off all purchases to the Children's Miracle Network at UC Davis Nov. 6-12.

Denise Rodgers, a family medicine physician at Rutgers University and national leader in reducing health disparities, will speak in Sacramento as part of the 2014 UC Davis Health System Snively Visiting Professorship in Family and Community Medicine.

The American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH) has recognized Richard Kravitz, professor of internal medicine, with its George Engel Award. The award is presented annually for outstanding research contributing to the theory, practice and teaching of effective health-care communication and related skills.

Researchers at UC Davis have found that the drug bortezomib effectively treats chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a common and debilitating side effect from allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplants.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded UC Davis principal investigators Laura Marcu and Gregory Farwell $1.5 million to adapt UC Davis-developed biophotonic technology to a robotic surgical device in hopes of dramatically improving the precision of head and neck cancer surgery.

Robin Whitney, a Doctor of Philosophy student at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, was one of four researchers showcased in a webcast today promoting the inaugural Palliative Care in Oncology Symposium Oct. 24 and 25 in Boston.

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center will hold a workshop for those caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The workshop will be held from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, in the auditorium of the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento. There is no cost to participate in the workshop; however, reservations are required to attend.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, have created a cellular probe that combines a tarantula toxin with a fluorescent compound to help scientists observe electrical activity in neurons and other cells. The probe binds to a voltage-activated potassium ion channel subtype, lighting up when the channel is turned off and dimming when it is activated.

Research examining what happens to young adults with autism spectrum disorder when they leave high school will be the topic of the November UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation. The discussion, on “Young Adult Outcomes,” will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at the MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento.

For the fourth consecutive year, UC Davis Medical Center has been recognized as a “Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality” in the Healthcare Quality Index, an annual survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the country’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization.

Randi Jenssen Hagerman, medical director of the UC Davis MIND Institute, Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Endowed Chair in Fragile X Research and Treatment, has received the prestigious C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development for her outstanding contributions in the field of child development from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the professional organization for pediatricians in the United States.

To ensure women are aware of their breast reconstruction options, on Oct. 15, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., the UC Davis Division of Plastic Surgery will host Breast Reconstruction Awareness (BRA) Day at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center.

A team of UC Davis and University of Arizona researchers discovered that adding the bacteria Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis (B. infantis) to formula fed to newborn rats reduced the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis, an often deadly intestinal infection.

A multidisciplinary team at UC Davis will embark on research to determine whether combining a novel type of immunotherapy with radiation and chemotherapy can make treatment for sarcoma, breast and pancreatic cancers more effective.

Focusing on treatments to ameliorate autism symptoms, researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute will launch the first study to examine the effectiveness of the use of sertraline, commonly known as Zoloft®™, in children as young as 2 to 6 years, through a three-year, $900,000 grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Leading voices in health care and some 8,000 pre-health and pre-medical students will meet to explore the future of health care and how the students can join and influence the professions at the University of California, Davis, Oct. 11-12.

Late last week, it was determined that a UC Davis physician's work email account was accessed by an unknown source. UC Davis Health System has notified 1,326 patients who had their personal or medical information included in an email within the compromised account. This event did not involve access to the electronic health records of patients, patients' social security numbers or patients' personal financial information.

The UC Davis MIND Institute’s venerable Minds Behind the MIND series will launch its 2014-15 season in October with a departure from its previous format. The quarterly evening lectures have been replaced by Saturday morning presentations featuring UC Davis faculty and community representatives.

The Poodlums, a children’s musical duo, performed for UC Davis Children’s Hospital last week. The special performance was made possible by a donation from a community member and the UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department.

Eighteen health leaders from nonprofit organizations and public agencies throughout Northern and Central California began classes this week as members of the Health Leadership Program's Class XI. The program, a partnership of the Sierra Health Foundation, UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) and the University of San Francisco (USF) School of Management, is jointly led by IPHI Director Kenneth Kizer and Richard Callahan, chair of USF's Department of Public and Nonprofit Administration.

Shinjiro Hirose, a nationally recognized fetal and pediatric surgeon, has joined the faculty of the UC Davis School of Medicine as chief of the newly established Division of Pediatric General, Thoracic and Fetal Surgery in the Department of Surgery.

UC Davis Health System officials and California Senate leader Darrell Steinberg today announced the founding of a unique academic research center designed to improve mental health in California and serve as a national model for advancing innovative research in neuroscience, as well as the prevention of and early interventions in mental illness.

September 2014

The Center of Excellence at UC Davis is part of a $15 million comprehensive research effort funded by a grant from Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, established under Proposition 63. The commission is funding a similar center in Southern California at UCLA.

Two UC Davis research teams developing transformational technologies to understand the dynamics of the neural circuitry underlying behavior and cognition have received awards from the federal Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Technologies (BRAIN) Initiative, a presidential grand Challenge enterprise.

Alexander Nguyen, a fourth-year medical student at UC Davis School of Medicine who is focused on improving the health of Americans, especially at-risk youth, received an American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Physicians of Tomorrow Award. He is one of 21 students across the nation recognized for this academic achievement.

Bike riding is one of the best ways to improve heart health, but too few women enjoy its benefits. UC Davis cardiovascular experts are encouraging more women to take advantage of the region's vast cycling resources as collaborators in the upcoming Princess Promenade, a women's cycling event in Sacramento on Sunday, Oct. 5.

The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Brain Innovation Group has received a grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to improve brain cancer surgery and treatment using UC Davis-developed biophotonic technology.

A 2004 California law mandating specific nurse-to-patient staffing standards in acute care hospitals significantly lowered job-related injuries and illnesses for both registered nurses and licensed practical nurses, according to a UC Davis study published online in the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health.

Stuart Berger, one of the nation's premier pediatric cardiologists and the leader in a national campaign to prevent sudden cardiac arrest deaths in children and teens, has joined the faculty of the UC Davis School of Medicine as professor and vice-chair of the Department of Pediatrics and chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology.

Mothers of children with autism are significantly less likely to report taking iron supplements before and during their pregnancies than the mothers of children who are developing normally, a study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found.

Katheleen Gardiner, Anna and John J. Sie Professor of Genetics at the University of Colorado, Denver, will discuss “Cognitive Deficits in Down Syndrome: The Underlying Molecular Concepts,” during the first UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer address of the 2014-15 season.

The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center is sponsoring a day of interactive, informative event to recognize the brave face of each woman with breast cancer on Oct. 15, 2014 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the cancer center, 4501 X St., Sacramento.

Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, professor of clinical internal medicine and director of the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities, on Thursday, Sept. 18, presented a seminar entitled, “If You Build It, Will They Come? Addressing Mental-Health Treatment Gaps in Latinos,” at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

UC Davis Medical Center has been named one of “100 Hospitals and Health Systems With Great Heart Programs” for 2014-15 by Becker's Hospital Review. In developing the list, the publication's editorial team considered hospitals that “lead the nation in cardiovascular and thoracic healthcare.”

David B. Schrimmer, a highly respected obstetrician and gynecologist who is expert in the management of complex pregnancies, including multiple gestations and those requiring fetal therapy, has joined the faculty of the UC Davis School of Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology as professor and chief of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Ulfat Shaikh, director for healthcare quality at UC Davis School of Medicine and pediatrician at UC Davis Children's Hospital, has been named the Quality Improvement Project Leader for the American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) Council on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (COQIPS).

Katherine Rauen, professor in the Department of Pediatrics and a physician-scientist affiliated with UC Davis MIND Institute and UC Davis Children’s Hospital, has received the 2014 Rare Champion of Hope Honoree in Science.

UC Davis Children's Hospital faculty, staff, residents and patients are featured in a new music video, "Glory Glory Sacramento," which will be shown at halftime at tomorrow's Sacramento Republic FC playoff game.

In what may be the largest study of sleep problems among individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers at UC Davis have found that widely undiagnosed sleep disorders may be at the root of the most common and disabling symptom of the disease: fatigue.

Show a commitment to cardiovascular health by joining a UC Davis Health System team for this year's Sacramento Heart and Stroke Walk. The walk is Saturday, Sept. 20, at William Land Park beginning at 8:30 a.m.

Join us for an evening of fun, food and drink, silent auction, raffle (including an Amish Quilt), live music and support our 17th annual benefit to raise research funds for the battle against lymphomas and related diseases!

Treatment at the earliest age when signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear – sometimes in infants as young as 6 months old – significantly reduces symptoms so that, by age 3, most who received the therapy had neither ASD nor developmental delay, a UC Davis MIND Institute research study has found. [español]

UC Davis and the University of Washington are implementing a project to develop innovative new models of care for depression in older adults through a $2.5 million grant from the California-based Archstone Foundation, a private grant-making organization whose mission is to contribute toward the preparation of society in meeting the needs of an aging population. The grant launches Archstone Foundation’s Depression in Late Life Initiative to improve the quality of life for older adults suffering from depression.

The UC Davis Hospice Program and UC Davis Children's Hospital Bereavement Program will offer an eight-week Young Adult Bereavement Art Group for individuals 17 to 24 who are coping with the recent loss of a loved one. The sessions will be held on eight consecutive Tuesday evenings from Sept. 29 through Nov. 17.

As part of Angel Flight West's team, surgeon and pilot Tom Stevenson donates his time and plane to fly people who need organ transplants, kidney dialysis, cancer treatment and other types of care to locations throughout California, Oregon and Nevada.

Infant rhesus monkeys receiving different diets early in life develop distinct immune systems that persist months after weaning, a study by researchers from UC Davis, the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) at UC Davis and UC San Francisco has shown. The study, which compares breast- and bottle-fed infants, appears online September 3 in Science Translational Medicine. [en español]

Short questionnaires used to identify patients at risk for depression are linked with antidepressant medications being prescribed when they may not be needed, according to new research from UC Davis Health System published in the September-October issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

August 2014

Researchers at UC Davis have made some surprising discoveries about the body’s initial responses to HIV infection. Studying simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the team found that specialized cells in the intestine called Paneth cells are early responders to viral invasion and are the source of gut inflammation by producing a cytokine called interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β).

Autism is far more common in boys than girls - affecting 1 in 54 boys and 1 in 252 girls — but little is known about biological differences between boys and girls with autism. A new study, called the ‘Girls with Autism — Imaging of Neurodevelopment’ or GAIN Study, led by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute will explore those differences in very young girls with autism.

Nicholas Dillon, the brave 13-year-old who survived after a chimney collapsed on him in his home during the Napa Valley earthquake last Saturday, is in good condition in UC Davis Children’s Hospital. Dillon’s recovery has garnered national and international media attention. He was interviewed from his hospital room in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit yesterday by NBC News, among other media outlets.

mKit Lam and colleagues from UC Davis and other institutions have created dynamic nanoparticles (NPs) that could provide an arsenal of applications to diagnose and treat cancer. Built on an easy-to-make polymer, these particles can be used as contrast agents to light up tumors for MRI and PET scans or deliver chemo and other therapies to destroy tumors. In addition, the particles are biocompatible and have shown no toxicity. The study was published online today in Nature Communications.

Randi Hagerman, Endowed Chair in Fragile X Research and medical director of the UC Davis MIND Institute, and Robert Hendren, professor, vice chair and director of child and adolescent psychiatry in the UC San Francisco Department of Psychiatry, are the editors of a new leading-edge book, Treatment of Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Targeting Neurobiological Mechanisms, published by Oxford University Press. The book details advances in genetics, neurobiology and psychopharmacology, and their treatment applications in clincial settings

Kenneth W. Kizer, a distinguished professor and director of the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement and national expert on veterans’ issues, has been asked to serve on University of California President Janet Napolitano’s Advisory Council on Student Veterans.

In a media briefing at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network released How Do You Measure Up?, an annual report that scores each state on how they are doing in the fight against cancer.

Björn Oskarsson, assistant professor of neurology and director of the Multidisciplinary ALS Clinic braved icy waters on the west side of the Ellison Ambulatory Care Center at UC Davis Medical Center Aug. 20 to answer the ALS ice bucket challenge.

The Sacramento-based UC Davis Health System reminds northern California residents that it never seeks donations using door-to-door solicitors and does not work with organizations that use this fundraising approach.

The UC Davis CAARE Center and UC Davis Psychiatry’s SacEDAPT Clinic have received funding to improve the assessment and treatment of underserved traumatized youth who are experiencing the early signs of psychosis.

The UC Davis Multidisciplinary ALS Clinic will answer the ALS Association’s “ice bucket challenge” Wednesday, Aug. 20 at noon on the west side of the Ellison Ambulatory Care Center, to raise awareness and funds for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research and treatment.

More than 250 staff, faculty, students and neighbors enjoyed live music, food and fun at last week’s free summer concert, presented by UC Davis Children’s Hospital. The event was co-hosted by the UC Davis Health System Community Advisory Board and Shriners Hospitals for Children – Northern California.

As a former UC Davis Children's Hospital patient, Zachary Hill knows what it is like to spend time in the pediatrics unit of UC Davis Children's Hospital. Last month, the 17-year-old returned and brought some Lego fun with him. Hill, a life scout from Troop 107 in Sacramento, decided to focus his Eagle Scout project on creating a playroom event for the boys and girls in the pediatrics unit.

Bringing together the research prowess of the University of California to address the increase in autism incidence, its public health impacts, and the need to speed the development of treatments for affected individuals and their families, internationally respected scientists from UC campuses at Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Davis will converge at the UC Davis MIND Institute for a daylong summit on innovative translational neurodevelopmental research.

Researchers at UC Davis, City of Hope, Taipai Medical University and National Health Research Institutes in Taiwan have discovered how a drug that deprives the cells of a key amino acid specifically kills cancer cells.

All 18 UC Davis Medical Group primary care clinics received recognition in July from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as Patient-Centered Medical Homes, a designation that rewards primary-care providers for efficiency, quality and innovation in primary care.

UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center oncologist Chong-Xian Pan has received a $650,000 grant from the VA Northern California Health Care System to conduct the first clinical trial of a novel chemotherapy-delivery drug he developed for bladder cancer patients.

UC Davis Health System has opened a clinic dedicated to treating a rare and complex condition called thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), which occurs when blood vessels or nerves running from the upper body through the arm become compressed, causing problems ranging from reduced mobility and pain to life- and limb-threatening blood clots. It is most often the outcome of trauma, repetitive movements or extra ribs that are present at birth.

Lin Tian’s fascination with neuroscience stems from a deep curiosity about the complexity and elegance of the human brain. As one of only five scientists in the U.S. and Canada — and the first at UC Davis —to be named a 2014 Rita Allen Foundation Scholar, Tian will be developing optical sensors and applications to acquire fundamental insights about how the nervous system functions in health and disease.

Founding Dean for the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, Heather M. Young, was recently named the 2014 recipient of the Doris Schwartz Gerontological Nursing Research Award by the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — the Gerontological Society of America (GSA).

The UC Davis Hospice Program recently arranged a special occasion for one of its patients, who also is an avid soccer fan, 13-year-old Bryan Garcia: an unannounced visit to his home from Rodrigo Lopez, a member of the Sacramento Republic FC soccer team of United Soccer Leagues.

July 2014

A research project led by the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis was approved for a $2.1 million award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study improving health for individuals with diabetes.

fSeven years ago this month, Thomas Cranmer was serving his country as a Navy SEAL, helping injured platoon members who were hit by gunfire during an ambush in Ramadi, Iraq. This week, he’s in California, getting ready to put on a white coat and receive a stethoscope during a special ceremony that will welcome him and 109 other students into the UC Davis School of Medicine Class of 2018.

The UC Davis MIND Institute is seeking participants for a study examining the benefits of a computer-based, game-oriented training program for enhancing working memory in children and adolescents with autism and fragile X syndrome. Participants must be between 8 and 17 and have been diagnosed with either autism or fragile X.

A program that supports the professional development of female faculty at the UC Davis School of Medicine has been recognized as a model for other institutions seeking to address challenges facing female faculty.

Walmart and Sam’s club customers and members were encouraged to “put your money where the miracles are,” during its six-week annual miracle balloon campaign from May 1-June 13. Mostly one dollar at a time, UC Davis Children's Hospital partnered with 62 locations across the Sacramento Region to raise $433,812, raising over $3 million since the partnership began to help provide help patient visits for more than 74,000 kids each year.

110 new medical students who make up the Class of 2018 will be officially welcomed to the UC Davis School of Medicine at an official ceremony known as “Induction.” The event marks the first step in the students’ medical training.

The young and the young at heart are invited to a free outdoor summer concert featuring music by Sacramento dance band Hip Service, a special player appearance from the Sacramento Republic FC, entertainment from the Radio Disney Road Crew and a kids zone. The event is presented by UC Davis Children’s Hospital and co-hosted by the UC Davis Health System Community Advisory Board and Shriners Hospitals for Children – Northern California.

Mark J. Mannis, professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science and director of the UC Davis Eye Center, has received the Castroviejo Medal from the Cornea Society for his significant contributions in the field of cornea and anterior segment surgery. The medal, named in honor of Ramon Castroviejo, the father of modern corneal transplant surgery and the inspiration for the founding of the Cornea Society, is the society's highest honor.

Early life experiences, such as childhood socioeconomic status and literacy, may have greater influence on the risk of cognitive impairment late in life than such demographic characteristics as race and ethnicity, a large study by researchers with the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the University of Victoria, Canada, has found.

Researchers from UC Davis School of Medicine and Shriners Hospitals for Children – Northern California have identified a group of cells in the brain that they say plays an important role in the abnormal neuron development in Down syndrome.

The nation’s accrediting authority for M.D. programs has voted to continue accreditation of the UC Davis School of Medicine. The renewed status by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) follows a lengthy systematic review of the school as well as a site visit earlier this year. It provides UC Davis with a new eight-year term.

UC Davis MIND Institute researchers are seeking participants for a new study that will examine the early development of infants who have an older sibling with autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or who are developing typically. In an effort to detect the earliest signs of developmental problems, the researchers will test a new online screening measure that uses videos to help parents track their infants’ development.

The current system used to determine Medicare payments for surgeries — called relative value units, or RVUs — poorly correlates with the actual work involved in procedures, new research from UC Davis has found. The authors of the study, which will be published in the August issue of the Journal of Surgical Research, call for a more objective system for determining the value of work done by surgeons.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis is one of only 14 nursing schools nationwide to receive the first grants from a new Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) program to increase the number nurses with Doctor of Philosophy degrees.

UC Davis Medical Center has ranked as one of the nation’s best hospitals for 2014-15 in 10 adult medical specialties by U.S. News & World Report. The annual U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, released July 15, recognize hospitals that excel in treating patients with the most serious and challenging injuries and illnesses.

Researchers at UC Davis, University of Massachusetts and Harvard Medical School have created a combination drug that controls both tumor growth and metastasis. By combining a COX-2 inhibitor, similar to Celebrex, and an epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitor, the drug controls angiogenesis (blood vessel formation), limiting a tumor’s ability to grow and spread. The study appears today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

When it comes to a specific type of pancreatic surgery, post-operative complications have a far greater impact on total cost than does how long the patient stays in the hospital, according to a published paper by UC Davis researchers.

UC Davis Children's Hospital has received the Excellence in Life Support Award from the international Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) for its Extracorporeal Life Support Program. The program provides lifesaving support for failing organ systems in infants, children and, in some cases, adults.

A nationwide study of more than 40,000 children evaluated in hospital emergency departments for head trauma found that if children had only loss of consciousness, and no other signs or symptoms related to the head trauma, they are very unlikely to have sustained serious brain injuries. Children who have only isolated loss of consciousness after head trauma do not routinely require computed tomography (CT) scans of the head, reported researchers from UC Davis Health System and Boston Children’s Hospital.

A potentially groundbreaking investigational drug designed to treat the painful vaso-occlusive crises that are the hallmark of sickle cell disease has been found to be safe following a clinical trial at UC Davis.

Born in Northern California in June 2011, Tiny had the first of three planned surgeries to correct hypoplastic left heart syndrome 10 days after birth, and was treated afterward in the UC Davis Children’s Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit/Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

Joseph Galante has been named chief of the UC Davis Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery. He previously served as the division’s trauma medical director and interim chief, in addition to serving as vice chair for education and director of the general surgery residency program for the Department of Surgery.

To ease isolation during extended hospitalizations, UC Davis Children’s Hospital offers secure videoconferencing for patients and families. While anecdotal accounts have suggested the Family-Link program enhances quality of life during long hospital stays, clinicians wondered if the technology also offered clinical benefits. [中文 Chinese]

Medical school started early and quickly for six brand new first-year students. The School of Medicine, in partnership with Kaiser Permanente Northern California, recently welcomed its first group of students into the Accelerated Competency-based Education in Primary Care (ACE-PC) program.

The American Academy of Nursing announced this week that Debra Bakerjian, an assistant adjunct professor and senior director for nurse practitioner and physician assistant clinical education and practice at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, was selected as one of 168 nurse leaders nationwide for fellowship in the prestigious academy.

Researchers at UC Davis have determined that surgical biopsies can be safely performed on select patients with late-stage non-small cell lung cancer, which should enhance their access to drugs that target specific genetic mutations such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).

Orthopaedic surgeons based at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento are performing some outpatient surgeries and procedures in Davis as part of a new affiliation with the Davis Surgery Center. The location provides a convenient alternative for same-day surgery patients who reside in Yolo County.

Pregnant women who lived in close proximity to fields and farms where chemical pesticides were applied experienced a two-thirds increased risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental delay, a study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found. The associations were stronger when the exposures occurred during the second and third trimesters of the women’s pregnancies. [en español]

UC Davis Assistant Professor of Neurology Norika Mahado-Chang is featured in a new documentary, “ViewFinder: Living with Parkinson’s,” premiering at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 25 on KVIE. The film offers a look at the lives of individuals in the Sacramento region who are afflicted by the debilitating disease and their caregivers.

UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center patients will soon be part of an unprecedented clinical trial designed to improve access to promising therapies and speed development of effective treatments for an advanced form of lung cancer, the leading cancer killer of both men and women.

For the first time, eight Doctor of Philosophy students collected degrees through the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis this graduation season, along with 24 Master of Science students and six nurse practitioner and 24 physician assistant certificate graduates.

Elizabeth Partridge, a third-year pediatric resident at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, was invited to attend the European Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) meeting last month in Dublin, Ireland, to share her poster project on the effectiveness of early transition from IV to oral antibiotic therapy in the treatment of deep wound infections after scoliosis surgery.

UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers take center stage this week in Madrid during the second in a series of workshops designed to enhance cultural, academic, scientific and business relations between UC Davis and Madrid.

In a remarkable series of experiments on a fungus that causes cryptococcal meningitis, a deadly infection of the membranes that cover the spinal cord and brain, investigators at UC Davis have isolated a protein that appears to be responsible for the fungus’ ability to cross from the bloodstream into the brain.

A UC Davis study comparing violent misdemeanor convictions with their original criminal charges has found that subsequent violent crimes could be prevented if criminal charges were reduced less often during plea bargaining.

Researchers at UC Davis and other facilities have shown that telehealth consultations for clinicians at rural hospitals improve their ability to provide forensic examinations for sexual abuse. Published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, the study showed that clinicians with access to expert UC Davis nurses provided more thorough and nuanced exams, improving their ability to gather evidence and to make an accurate diagnosis.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the nation’s top hospitals in four pediatric subspecialties. Together with Shriners Hospital for Children – Northern California, its longstanding partner in caring for children with burns, spinal cord injuries, urological issues and orthopaedic disorders. UC Davis ranked 22nd in orthopaedics and 47th in urology. UC Davis also ranked 23rd in nephrology and 28th in neonatology.

Concerned with increasing news reports of human trafficking in the Sacramento region, UC Davis School of Nursing professors developed a training workshop for area health professionals in hopes of helping practitioners better identify, and then support, victims of sex trafficking.

In the wake of recent revelations of overly long patient wait times and systematic manipulation and falsification of reported wait time data, UC Davis and Harvard public policy leaders believe the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health-care system’s problems can be fixed by strong leadership, greater transparency and reforms that refocus the organization on its primary mission of providing timely access to consistently high-quality care.

Devices made of metal plates and screws that can precisely align and stabilize fractured bones as they heal can safely and effectively repair the sternum, according to a review of UC Davis surgeries published in the May issue of the Annals of Plastic Surgery.

Paramita Ghosh, a UC Davis associate professor and expert in signal transduction pathways in prostate cancer, has been selected as one of 350 scientists to work on a project that aims to reduce public exposure to environmental agents that can lead to cancer and that hopes to inspire research into multi-faceted approaches to cancer prevention, treatment and prolonged survival.

Cameron Carter, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, will be featured in “A Choice to Heal: Mental Health in California,” a new documentary that explores groundbreaking approaches to prevention and early intervention for Californians with mental illnessess. Hosted by actress Mariel Hemingway, the program will air on Saturday, May 31 from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on television station KOVR 13 in Sacramento.

James Marcin, interim head of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at UC Davis Children's Hospital, has been elected one of three new members of distinction to the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) College of Fellows this month.

Alcino J. Silva, an internationally respected professor of neurobiology, psychiatry and psychology and director of the Integrative Center for Learning and Memory at UCLA, will discuss “Mechanisms and Adult Treatments for Neurodevelopmental Disorders” during the June UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

The MIND Institute celebrated its more than 150 volunteers with a reception on Friday, May 16. At the institute, volunteers play crucial roles throughout the organization, from assisting families and clinicians who are seeing children in the research and diagnostic clinics, to supporting bench research.

Today, UC Davis Health System and Orbis International, a leading global non-governmental organization (NGO) that works to eliminate avoidable blindness, signed an agreement of cooperation that will expand the use of telemedicine technology to help treat and prevent blindness in the developing world.

Blue Oaks Elementary School in Roseville had its 10th annual Walk-a-thon this month to support the school and raise money for UC Davis Children’s Hospital. With only a week and a half to prepare, the school raised almost $13,000. About $7,000 will go toward UC Davis Children’s Hospital to benefit sick and injured children.

Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Founding Dean Heather M. Young serves as the only nurse leader on the 14-member Systems Engineering for Healthcare Working Group of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

The UC Davis MIND Institute holds the annual Summer Institute on Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Research to Practice on Friday, Aug. 8, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the UC Davis Alumni Center. The daylong conference offers nine seminars on a broad array of subjects delivered by some of the world’s leading experts on neurodevelopmental disabilities.

A pioneer in understanding the dietary risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive aging will address “Nutrition for a Healthy Brain” during the next UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

Colorectal cancer screening saves lives, but too few people get tested. In an effort to increase these numbers,researchers from UC Davis and elsewhere investigated whether an individualized interactive multimedia computer program (IMCP) would spur patients to get screened.

Children with autism experience deficits in a type of immune cell that protects the body from infection. Called granulocytes, the cells exhibit one-third the capacity to fight infection and protect the body from invasion compared to the same cells in children who are developing normally.

Recent progress in understanding genetic risk of autism spectrum disorder and next steps toward a better comprehension of the genetic processes underlying autism and other disabilities with social components is the topic of the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

UC Davis Medical Center has received the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award for using measures developed by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association to improve care and quality of life for stroke patients.

Randi Jenssen Hagerman, who has devoted her life to relieving the suffering of children and families affected by fragile X syndrome and related conditions worldwide through patient care, research and teaching, will receive a Distinguished Scholarly Public Service Award from the UC Davis Academic Senate.

April 2014

The five University of California medical centers and their affiliates participating in the Athena Breast Health Network are using a new guide for sharing electronic data for breast cancer treatment. Developed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and approved through ASCO's Health Level Seven International committee (HL7), the guide will become a national data exchange standard. With the guide, Athena can utilize structured data capture tools for coordination of care, registry submission and research.

The Leapfrog Group, an independent industry watchdog focused on improving the safety, quality and affordability of health care for Americans, has awarded UC Davis Medical Center an “A” for patient safety – its top grade.

Faith T. Fitzgerald is a nationally recognized master educator and diagnostician whose ability to guide clinicians in the science and art of medicine and compassionate patient care has been described as "legendary," "inspirational" and "unforgettable."

The stress hormone epinephrine – the source of the “fight-or-flight” response – also heightens stresses at the cellular level, inhibiting wound healing and promoting a state of chronic inflammation that prohibits the body’s stem cells from migrating to a wound to encourage skin regeneration, UC Davis researchers have found.

The risk of pregnancy among women using a newer method of planned sterilization called hysteroscopic sterilization is more than 10 times greater over a10-year period than using more commonly performed laparoscopic sterilization, a study by researchers with Yale University and UC Davis has found.

Researchers at UC Davis Children’s Hospital have shown that children with Down syndrome have significantly better in-hospital survival rates after surgeries for congenital heart disease (CHD) than their genetically typical peers.

Sarah Brown Blake, a master’s-degree student at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, recently won the 2014 Best Poster in the Research and Information Exchange category at the 47th annual Western Institute of Nursing conference in Seattle.

With Easter approaching, the Springtime Bunny hopped on over to UC Davis Children’s Hospital yesterday to bring some much needed cheer. The special visit was made possible through the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department. Their mission is to provide a positive environment for the children, one in which they can grow and develop while receiving medical care.

An international team led by researchers at UC Davis has shown that the cyclin B1/Cdk1 protein complex, which plays a key role in cell division, also boosts the mitochondrial activity to power that process. This is the first time the complex has been shown to perform both jobs. This newfound ability could make cyclin B1/Cdk1 an excellent target to control cellular energy production, potentially advancing cancer care and regenerative medicine. The research was published online today in the journal DevelopmentalCell.

Sacramento Republic FC, a USL PRO men's professional soccer team, hosts its inaugural home opener on Saturday, April 26, at Hughes Stadium. UC Davis Children's Hospital is the club's season title sponsor and will provide health-care services for Sacramento Republic FC players and personnel including treatment by the Sports Medicine Program and a team of physicians led by Eric Giza and Jeff Tanji.

Researchers at UC Davis have identified a new feature of the genetic mutation responsible for the progressive neurodegenerative disorder, fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) — the formation of “R-loops,” which they believe may be associated with the disorder’s neurological symptoms, such as tremors, lack of balance, features of parkinsonism, and cognitive decline.

When Stanley Williams arrived in the emergency room at UC Davis Medical Center last summer with a massive gunshot wound to his chest, his life was in jeopardy. Thanks to the expert care and advanced technology available at medical center, the U.S. military veteran survived his wound and continues to recover while waiting to resume his training for a culinary career.

Professor Katherine A. Rauen, professor in the Department of Pediatrics and a physician-scientist affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute and UC Davis Children’s Hospital, on April 15 received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

In celebration of national Medical Laboratory Professionals Week and the more than 300,000 specialists who perform and interpret some 10 billion laboratory tests in the U.S. each year, the UC Davis Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is offering behind-the-scenes guided tours at two of its clinical laboratory sites – the UC Davis Medical Center on Stockton Boulevard and the Specialty Testing Center on Business Drive in Sacramento.

UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Director Charles DeCarli will discuss “Your aging genes: What you need to know about your risk for dementia” during the Community Discovery Lecture Series on Thursday, May 8 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento.

Scott Porter, chief resident of orthopaedic surgery at UC Davis Medical Center, made national news after helping restrain a passenger who threatened to open a door on a Southwest Airlines flight traveling from Chicago to Sacramento on Sunday.

Job openings at UC Davis will be featured at its second Veterans, Disabled and Diversity Career and Resource Fair on Wednesday, May 14, from noon to 3 p.m. at UC Davis’ Sacramento campus, on the corner of 48th Street and 2nd Avenue. The event is free and open to the general public.

Nathan Kuppermann, professor and chair of emergency medicine at UC Davis, is wearing yet another hat these days. He’s been named chair of the executive committee of the Pediatric Emergency Research Networks (PERN), an international collaborative involving five pediatric emergency medicine networks worldwide, representing the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and parts of South America.

Drawing on three decades of experience leading diverse efforts to achieve integrated and higher-value health care, Kenneth W. Kizer, distinguished professor and director of the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement, identified nine key “lessons learned” about health-care integration based on efforts in California and nationally.

More than two dozen UC Davis nursing faculty and students will present their scholarly work focusing on improving and advancing health at the Western Institute of Nursing 47th Annual Communicating Nursing Research Conference in Seattle from April 9-12.

Federal agencies responsible for tracking workplace hazards fail to report 77 percent of the injuries and illnesses of U.S. agricultural workers and farmers, new research from UC Davis has found. [en español]

On Tuesday, April 29, the UC Davis MIND Institute hosts the Northern California premiere screening of “Sounding the Alarm,” a film that gives viewers a look at the profound changes that take place in the lives of 12 American families after their children receive an autism diagnosis. The screening will be held in the auditorium of the MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento, as part of the institute's Autism Awareness Month activities.

The UC Davis Department of Pharmacy is providing an opportunity to safely dispose of unused or expired prescription drugs on National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, Saturday, April 26, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Sacramento campus of UC Davis.

A multidisciplinary research team at UC Davis has found a key biological trigger — a protein known as nitric oxide synthase, or NOS — that makes the heart beat stronger in response to higher blood pressure, along with a way to turn that trigger off when it becomes overactive.

Charles Fried, the Harvard Law School professor known for his expertise on liberty and the limits of power, will speak in Davis and Sacramento as the UC Davis School of Medicine’s 2014 Nelson Lecturer in the Humanities. The lecture is co-hosted by the UC Davis School of Law.

Jeremy K. Nicholson, a leading researcher in the field of metabonomics — a platform for studying drug toxicity and gene function — is the keynote speaker at the 2014 Robert Stowell Lecture, held from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, April 14, 2014 in the second floor auditorium of the Medical Education Building, 4610 X Street, Sacramento.

The very earliest signs of a debilitating neurodegenerative disorder, in which physical symptoms are not apparent until the fifth decade of life, are detectable in individuals as young as 30 years old using a new, sophisticated type of neuroimaging, researchers at UC Davis, the University of Illinois and UCLA have found.

A new technology can simultaneously detect as many as 100 clinically important protein molecules in breast tumor cells – a quantum advance over conventional methods that can pinpoint only two to four at the same time. The advantages of the new methodology, called multiplexed ion beam imaging (MIBI), is described by a team of scientists at UC Davis and San Francisco and at Stanford, Genentec in the March 23 advance online publication of the journal Nature Medicine.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis conducted a White Coat Ceremony on Monday to celebrate the formal transition from classroom education to clinical preparation for physician assistant and nurse practitioner Class of 2015 students.

Internationally respected autism researchers Sally J. Rogers and Judy Van de Water will provide updates on clinical and research advances in autism spectrum disorder on Wednesday, April 16 during the Autism Awareness Month Minds Behind the MIND presentation.

Effective April 1, Mark Underwood will be the new division head of neonatology. Underwood’s appointment was made after an extensive national search that focused on identifying a leader with superb clinical, educational and academic skills.

Blood and tumor specimen collection from cancer patients is critical to research into new, more personally targeted therapies. But biospecimen collection among diverse populations lags far behind that of whites. [Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish]

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center will hold the 6th Annual African-American Caregiving and Wellness Forum, Saturday, April 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the North Oakland Senior Center, 5714 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, Oakland. The event is being held in conjunction with the Alzheimer's Association and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson. The forum is intended for caregivers who support individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.

Maureen Durkin, director of the Graduate Program in Population Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, will address "The Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder, an Emerging Global Public Health Priority," during the April UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series address.

UC Davis professor Christopher Bowlus of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and his liver cancer disparity research, are featured on the Health Equity Research Snapshot of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

For the first time, scientists have succeeded in coaxing laboratory cultures of human stem cells to develop into the specialized, unique cells needed to repair a patient’s defective or diseased bladder.

In a room filled with excitement and joy, 96 students from UC Davis School of Medicine today learned where they will be continuing their medical education over the next several years as they train to become licensed physicians.

Researchers at UC Davis have found that the investigational cancer vaccine tecemotide, when administered with the chemotherapeutic cisplatin, boosted immune response and reduced the number of tumors in mice with lung cancer. The study also found that radiation treatments did not significantly impair the immune response. The paper was published on March 10 in the journal Cancer Immunology Research, an American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) publication.

Fourth-year medical students will gather to receive individual letters informing them where they are "matched" for residency training during the next three to seven years. Match Day is an annual rite of passage that takes place simultaneously at medical schools throughout the nation.

UC Davis clinicians and physicists have recommended new strategies to make computed tomography (CT) safer, including adoption of a new metric for dose measurement, ways to manage exposure protocols that differ by CT brand and specific approaches to reduce exposure during needle biopsies. The recommendations are detailed in papers published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR).

Sacramento’s public television station KVIE is exploring a growing health concern among Central California residents and those who travel to the area in the documentary “Deadly Dust: Valley Fever in the West.” The half-hour documentary, part of the Viewfinder program, will air March 26 at 7 p.m.

A new study involving researchers from UC Davis and four other National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers reveals important barriers that limit minority group participation in cancer clinical trials, findings that will be used to refine and launch more effective strategies to assure that more minorities benefit from clinical trials.

Twenty years after Congress mandated that research funded by the National Institutes of Health include minorities, less than 5 percent of trials participants are non-white, and less than 2 percent of clinical cancer research studies focus on non-white ethnic or racial groups, UC Davis researchers have found. [Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Vietnamese]

It's a win-win partnership. This month, Sacramento professional soccer team Sacramento Republic FC will donate 10 percent of the total season ticket revenue generated through this link to UC Davis Children's Hospital. Users should use promo code: ucdhospital.

Mothers of newborns can now donate their babies’ umbilical cord blood at UC Davis Medical Center and other hospitals throughout the state as part of California’s first comprehensive public system of collecting cord blood for lifesaving transplantations and medical research. [en español]

UC Davis researchers have found that routine information — blood pressure, respiratory rate, temperature and white blood cell count — from the electronic health records (EHRs) of hospitalized patients can be used to predict the early stages of sepsis, a leading cause of death and hospitalization in the U.S. They also determined that just three measures — lactate level, blood pressure and respiratory rate — can pinpoint the likelihood that a patient will die from the disease.

Microbes collected from Northern California and throughout the nation will soon blast into orbit for research and a microgravity growth competition on the International Space Station (ISS). This citizen science project, known as Project MERCCURI, is led in part by UC Davis microbiologists, who are investigating how microbes from different places on Earth compare to each other and to those found on the International Space Station.

The UC Davis MIND Institute has been named an Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC), through a prestigious grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health — a distinction held by only a handful of neurodevelopmental centers nationwide committed to the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and amelioration of developmental disorders such as autism, fragile X syndrome and Down syndrome.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Davis School of Medicine among America's best medical schools for the quality of its educational programs in primary care and research. The news magazine's annual listing appeared today on the publication's website and will be published in its guidebook, “America's Best Graduate Schools 2015.”

The premiere screening of the documentary “Deadly Dust: Valley Fever in the West” will be held at the KVIE studios in Sacramento on Wednesday, Mar. 19, 2014. The event is free and open to the first 200 who R.S.V.P. online.

Antoinette Stratton, an administrative assistant with the UC Davis Department of Surgery, was chosen by Woman’s Day magazine for its “Live Longer and Stronger Challenge,” a program that helps women overcome heart disease.

April is Annual Autism Awareness Month, and the UC Davis MIND Institute will hold a series of activities for people of all ages and abilities during this month-long observance. Unless otherwise noted, the eventsare free and open to the public and take place at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento, Calif.

Atypical development can be detected as early as 12 months of age among the siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder, a study published by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute and UCLA has found.

February 2014

On Monday, March 3, pancake lovers can drive through, eat their fill of short-stack pancakes and make a donation to support sick and injured children at UC Davis Children's Hospital, in recognition of the International House of Pancakes' (IHOP) National Pancake Day.

Sacramento-area youth in the early stages of serious mental illness can receive a new smartphone app that helps them detect early warning signs of psychosis, through a one-year, $588,000 grant to the UC Davis Early Diagnosis and Preventive Treatment (EDAPT) Clinic from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to study whether harnessing mobile technology improves patient care.

The 2014 Chancellor’s Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community have been presented in the categories of Academic Senate and Academic Federation, staff, undergraduate and graduate student, community member — and in a new category, post-doctoral scholar.

Researchers at the internationally respected UC Davis MIND Institute are collaborating with scientists at two Colombian universities to investigate the very high rate of fragile X-related disorders in one region in the South American country. [en español]

Stewart H. Mostofsky, director of the Laboratory for Neurocognitive and Imaging Research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University, will discuss “Motor and Social Skill Function: Connecting Learning and Brain Function in Autism” during the March UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development awarded $265,000 to the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis for the nurse practitioner and physician assistant programs to improve primary care to underserved populations through expanded clinical rotations and simulated learning based on real-life situations.

Justin Siegel, a biochemist at the University of California, Davis, who uses computers to develop new "designer enzymes" with properties not found in nature, has been awarded a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship to support his work.

When mothers feed their newborns formula in the hospital, they are less likely to fully breastfeed their babies in the second month of life and more likely to quit breastfeeding early, even if they had hoped to breastfeed longer, UC Davis researchers have found. [en español or 中文 Chinese]

UC Davis Medical Center is a winner of the Women’s Choice Award as one of America’s Best Hospitals in Heart Care. As more women self-manage their care and seek providers they can trust, the Women’s Choice Award is the only distinction that identifies the nation’s best health-care institutions and signifies UC Davis Medical Center’s commitment and passion for creating an extraordinary health-care experience. [en español]

For the second year in a row, Star 106.5 called on its radio listeners to send in Valentine's Day cards for UC Davis Children's Hospital patients. More than 30,000 Valentine's Day cards have poured in, as part of the radio station's Valentine's Day Card campaign.

Professor of Neurology John Olichney will provide an update on recent advances in clinical trials research for Alzheimer’s disease during the next UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center 2014 Community Discovery Lecture Series presentation. The event will be held on Thursday, March 6, in the auditorium of the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento. [en español]

Helen Wu, a research and policy scientist in the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI), has been selected to receive a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Mentored Research Scientist Development Award under its Public Health Services and Systems Research Program.

UC Davis Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department will continue to train individuals to become certified child life specialists at UC Davis Children's Hospital, thanks to a generous donation by Spirit Halloween Superstores.

Up to 40 percent of infants who do not pass the newborn hearing screen are lost to follow-up and never receive a diagnostic evaluation. But the use of tele-audiology technologies can improve follow-up evaluation rates by making it easier for families to access services.

Governments could slow — and even reverse — the growing epidemic of obesity by taking measures to counter fast food consumption, according to a study published today in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

January 2014

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic. Almost one-third of children in this country are overweight or obese, but how can we stem the tide? One idea is to use electronic health records (EHRs) to help clinicians intervene more aggressively. Programmed alerts could spur caregivers to order key tests and educate patients and families. But how does this approach work in the real world?

UC Davis faculty are available throughout American Heart Month in February for interviews on the detection, treatment and prevention of heart and vascular disease and can discuss groundbreaking research that is leading to new methods of addressing heart failure, arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, valve disease, congenital conditions, coronary artery disease and more.

New standards, approaches and recommendations for diagnosing, treating and conducting research on pulmonary hypertension in infants and children were recently published in a special issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology devoted to findings of the 5th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension (WSPH), held in Nice, France, in 2013. Robin Steinhorn, professor and chair of the UC Davis Department of Pediatrics, was one of only two neonatologists worldwide invited to participate.

UC Davis Health System is in the process of notifying approximately 1,800 patients that emails containing their personal or medical information may have been compromised by an Internet phishing scam that affected three UC Davis clinicians in mid-December.

The University of California, Davis, studies the heart, treats the heart and promotes heart health in a big, big way, to be demonstrated Friday, Feb. 7, when thousands of students, staff and faculty will try to set a new world record for largest heart formation.

When people think of applications or apps, what usually comes to mind are readily accessible programs that make it easy to play music, choose a restaurant or locate a misplaced car in a parking lot. But apps also are being developed to help people with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and fragile X syndrome, and their use will be the topic of the next Minds Behind the MIND presentation.

Three UC Davis physicians are among the nation’s first doctors to become board certified in clinical informatics, a new medical subspecialty created to help broaden and professionalize the health information technology workforce.

In a commentary published this week in Nature, a global team of public-health experts that included Roberto De Vogli of UC Davis said it is time to abandon the GDP in favor of benchmarks that bring environmental and social health on par with economic progress.

UC Davis Medical Center joins the ranks of elite clinical-care institutions in the nation with its new Magnet Recognition Program® status, which was granted this week by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC).

UC Davis placed among the nation’s leading institutions of higher education that conduct research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2013, according to data collected and tabulated by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, a North Carolina nonprofit organization that uses the NIH’s Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools for its annual rankings.

David S. Mandell, associate director of the Center for Autism Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania, will present “Context Matters: Implementing Evidence-based Practices for Children with Autism in Public Schools” during the February UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecture.

In a study of the range of treatments being employed for young children with autism and other developmental delays, UC Davis MIND Institute researchers have found that families often use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments and that the most frequent users of both conventional and complementary approaches are those with higher levels of parental education and income. [en español]

Katherine A. Rauen, professor in the Department of Pediatrics and a physician-scientist affiliated with the UC Davis MIND Institute and UC Davis Children’s Hospital, has received a 2013 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their research careers.

As part of its gaol of accelerating the adoption of health information exchange (HIE) technology, the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement’s California Health eQuality (CHeQ) Program is offering free Direct accounts through its Rural HIE Incentive Program launched earlier this year.

Even though obesity affects women and men equally, a UC Davis study shows that obese women are four times more likely than obese men to seek weight-loss surgery. When they do see a bariatric surgeon, male patients tend to be older, more obese and sicker than women.

December 2013

UC Davis radiologists, medical physicists and orthopaedic surgeons have found a way to create "movies" of the wrist in motion using a series of brief magnetic resonance imaging scans. Called "Active MRI," the technique could be useful in diagnosing subtle changes in physiology that indicate the onset of conditions such as wrist instability.

High levels of “good” cholesterol and low levels of “bad” cholesterol are correlated with lower levels of the amyloid plaque deposition in the brain that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease, in a pattern that mirrors the relationship between good and bad cholesterol in cardiovascular disease, UC Davis researchers have found. [en español]

Gastric cancer kills more than 700,000 people each year, mostly in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. Though the disease is quite treatable when caught early, symptoms are indistinct and late detection leads to high mortality. The five-year survival rate in the United States is 26.9 percent.

In the UC Davis Children’s Hospital playroom, 9-year-old William Davis sat with his leg wrapped in bandages after treatment for dog bites and gazed at a large video screen as Santa Claus was beamed in from the North Pole. It was part of Cisco Systems’ “Santa Connection” program, which gives hospitalized children an opportunity to virtually share their wishes with Santa.

Since the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test was introduced in the late 1980s, prostate cancer mortality has dropped by more than 40 percent. However, there has been tremendous controversy over whether the PSA test has caused that decline. In a newly published study, UC Davis researchers suggest that PSA screening likely plays an important role. [en español]

Nancy E. Lane, an endowed professor of medicine and rheumatology and director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Health at UC Davis Health System, has been elected as a new member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the International Osteoporosis Foundation.

Removal of the thyroid gland is considered by most surgeons to be safe, which is why patients are often discharged from the hospital on the same day as the procedure. A new international, multicenter study published in the current issue of Surgery has found that some of these patients should be monitored in the hospital overnight for potentially deadly bleeding known as a post-surgical hematoma.

UC Davis eye specialist Khizer Khaderi, age 35, is combining expertise in neuro-opthalmology with technological know-how to develop new tools to improve vision and patient care, from athletes in training to individuals with traumatic brain injury.

More intensive screening to identify firearm owners among individuals who are subject to domestic violence restraining orders, and streamlining processes to recover guns at the time those restraining orders are served could help enforce existing laws that prohibit these offenders from having firearms and using them to harm others, a pilot study conducted by violence prevention experts at the University of Californa, Davis, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found. [en español]

A Phase III clinical trial led by UC Davis researchers has confirmed that a new coagulation factor (rFIXFc) dramatically reduces the number of injections needed to maintain effective clotting for hemophilia B patients.

Led by a renowned throat surgeon and a highly regarded stem cell researcher, a UC Davis team has received a $4.4 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to develop a stem cell-derived airway transplant to cure a difficult, life-threatening problem known as severe airway stenosis.

Alessio Fasano, an internationally respected pediatric gastroenterologist, research scientist and founder of the Center for Celiac Research at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, will present “Gut-brain interaction in autism spectrum disorder: What language do they speak, and do they understand each other?” during the January 2014 UC Davis MIND Institute distinguished lecture.

With a deluge of promising new drug treatments for advanced prostate cancer on the market, a new model of care is needed that emphasizes collaboration between urologists and medical oncologists, according to UC Davis prostate cancer experts. [en español]

Paul Knoepfler, associate professor of cell biology and human anatomy at UC Davis School of Medicine, was honored this week at the World Stem Cell Summit in San Diego for his stem cell advocacy and awareness efforts.

Tickets are now on sale for the 34th annual UC Davis School of Medicine Silent Auction and Wine Tasting Benefit, set for Saturday, Jan. 11, from 5:30-9 p.m. in the Education Building, 4610 X Street, Sacramento.

The ability to objectively measure and compare the quality and long-term outcomes of trauma care nationwide will be imperative under the new health-care payment models that are evolving, UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement Director Kenneth W. Kizer told attendees of the Trauma Quality Improvement Program (TQIP) of the American College of Surgeons last month.

UC Davis Medical Center ranks among The Leapfrog Group's list of Top Hospitals for 2013, a distinction that places UC Davis among a handful of health systems and hospitals in California and among the top 10 percent of hospitals participating in the national survey that met tough national standards for safety and quality. UC Davis and UC San Francisco Medical Center at Mount Zion were the only medical centers in the University of California system recognized as Top Hospitals.

Ten years after a transplant, a cornea from a 71-year-old donor is likely to remain as healthy as a cornea from a donor half that age, and corneas from donors over 71 perform slightly less well but still remain healthy for most transplant recipients, according to a study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) and led by the UC Davis Health System Eye Center and the University of Cincinnati Eye Institute. [en español]

The Sacramento County Tobacco Control Coalition has honored UC Davis Health System’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR) team for creating the first two-way e-referral with the California Smokers' Helpline (1-800-NO-BUTTS) in the state.

Five students recently got a further opportunity to engage in health-policy debates and discussions when they attended the California Medical Association’s (CMA) House of Delegates convention in Anaheim.

A new study from researchers at UC Davis has shown that telemedicine consultations from pediatric specialists reduced the number of drug errors in eight rural emergency departments. Published today in the journal Pediatrics, the study is the latest in research from UC Davis which demonstrates that telemedicine consultations can improve quality of care in rural settings. [中文 Chinese] or [en español]

Four UC Davis Health System faculty members have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They are among 388 new fellows — including a total of 10 at the University of California, Davis — honored for their scientifically distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. The AAAS will publish the names of new members in the November 29 issue of Science andformally recognize them during the association's annual meeting in Chicago on Saturday, Feb. 15.

People with health insurance are more likely to use preventive services such as flu shots and health screenings to reduce their risk of serious illness, but they are no more likely than people without health insurance to engage in risky health behaviors such as smoking or gaining weight, researchers at UC Davis and University of Rochester have found. [en español]

Sarah Tomaszewski Farias, an associate professor of neurology, will discuss “Keeping Your Brain Healthy,” during the final lecture in the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center 2013 Community Discovery Lecture Series. The event will be held on Thursday, Dec. 5, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m at the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento.

Communication of clinical information needed to provide safe and effective, high quality health care is now easier in 12 rural California counties as a result of an initiative launched earlier this year by the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI).

The UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) received a $125,000 grant from the Sierra Health Foundation to restart the foundation’s popular Health Leadership Program for nonprofits and public agencies. Faculty from the University of San Francisco School of Management will also collaborate on the project.

Peter Yellowlees, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has been appointed to a prestigious national committee established by the Institute of Medicine that will assess the quality and availability of mental-health care services for veterans who served in the United States Armed Forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom (the Iraq war), Operation New Dawn (the Iraq war after August 2010), and Operation Enduring Freedom (the war in Afghanistan).

As part of its mission to accelerate the adoption of health information exchange throughout California, the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement’s California Health eQuality program awarded $400,000 to L.A. Care, the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan, to develop Blue Button functionality. Blue Button will allow L.A. Care members to access their own prescription data online. The project is the first in California and among the first in the nation to develop the tool for Medicaid beneficiaries.

The University of California, Davis, announced today (Nov. 15) it successfully reached its goal to raise $1 billion from more than 100,000 donors through its first comprehensive fundraising campaign, The Campaign for UC Davis.

Online registration for next year’s always-popular Mini Medical School is now available. The theme for the upcoming lecture series is "On the Quest for the Fountain of Youth: Restoring Function to the Older Adult."

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been awarded a three-year, approximately $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for the Advancement of Telehealth - Health Resources and Services Administration (OAT-HRSA) to expand its services for infants through the new Pediatric Emergency Assistance to Newborns Using Telehealth (PEANUT) Program.

Bennet Omalu, an associate clinical professor of pathology at UC Davis who discovered the neurological disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in retired professional football players, was named among the top 20 forensic pathology professors online by ForensicsColleges.com. He is also chief medical examiner of San Joaquin County and is a consulting forensic pathologist/neuropathologist.

The Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) has received grants totaling $423,236 from the California HealthCare Foundation and The California Endowment to increase awareness of evidence-based policies to address a wide range of health issues facing California and the nation.

Percy Learns to Fly, a children’s book by Patricia Schetter, project coordinator at the Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at the UC Davis MIND Institute, has received a gold medal for outstanding contributions to children’s literature in the 2013 Gelett Burgess Children’s Book Award competition.

Children with autism experience gastrointestinal (GI) upsets such as constipation, diarrhea and sensitivity to foods six-to-eight times more often than do children who are developing typically, and those symptoms are related to behavioral problems, including social withdrawal, irritability and repetitive behaviors, a new study by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute has found. [en español] [中文 Chinese]

Marc Schenker, a physician and specialist in occupational, environmental and pulmonary disease, has received the alumni award of merit from the Harvard School of Public Health and was recognized by UC Davis as a distinguished professor for his research accomplishments, teaching excellence and service to the university.

Patients who used an interactive computer program about depression while waiting to see their primary-care doctor were nearly twice as likely to ask about the condition and significantly more likely to receive a recommendation for antidepressant drugs or a mental-health referral from their physician, according to a new study by researchers at UC Davis.

As part of a national effort to broaden scientific training opportunities for young scientists and engineers and better prepare them for a wide variety of careers, the National Institutes of Health has awarded UC Davis a five-year, $1.7 million grant to support the Frontiers of University Training to Unlock the Research Enterprise (FUTURE) program ̶ a campuswide effort that will expand academic offerings, internships and other experiential learning in the biomedical sciences for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

Using telemedicine to unite clinicians and provide health education for them — and by extension, their patients — is an effective way to manage childhood obesity in remote areas. For these communities, which often have limited access to pediatric subspecialists, having a HEALTH-COP can make all the difference. [中文 Chinese] or [en español]

October 2013

UC Davis Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology researchers are participating in a University of California-wide clinical trial to test the long-term efficacy of ablating uterine fibroids ― benign non-cancerous uterine tumors ― using high-frequency radio waves that heat, shrink and kill the fibroid tissues during minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery.

As part of its 2013 community engagement series, the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center will hold a workshop for those caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. The Caregivers Workshop will be held on Saturday, Nov. 9, from 8 a.m. to noon in the UC Davis MIND Institute auditorium, 2825 50th St., Sacramento.

November is COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) Awareness Month and a good time to increase public awareness of symptoms and treatments for the disease along with research that is expanding options for patients. Several UC Davis pulmonary physicians, surgeons and health educators, including those listed below, are available as media resources on COPD. To schedule an interview, please contact Karen Finney at 916-734-9064 or karen.finney@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu.

Kenneth W. Kizer, an internationally recognized health-care thought leader, change agent, and quality improvement and patient-safety advocate, received the 2013 Major Jonathan Letterman Medical Excellence Award from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine for advancing medical processes and improving patient outcomes and quality of life. He accepted the award in Bethesda, Md., on October 24.

James C. McPartland, director of the Developmental Disabilities Clinic at the Child Study Center at Yale University, will discuss “Motivated for Change: Rethinking Models of Social Brain Development in Autism Spectrum Disorder” during the November UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation. The lecture will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 13, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento.

Cable television channel Animal Planet aired an episode of the series "Monsters Inside Me", during the week of Oct. 15, which featured UC Davis Children's Hospital patient Precious Reynolds, the Humboldt County grade-schooler who in 2011 became the third person in the United States known to have survived rabies infection. The episode is entitled "Choosing Between Life and Limb."

The Leapfrog Group, a non-profit coalition of some of the country’s largest employers and health-care purchasers, has awarded UC Davis Medical Center the highest grade possible, an “A,” on its most recent Hospital Safety Score, an evaluation that ranks hospitals nationwide on the likelihood that its patients will be free from preventable harm during their inpatient stays.

Michael Campbell recently joined UC Davis Health System as its first fellowship-trained endocrine surgeon. Campbell specializes in the evaluation and management of patients with thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and pancreas disorders.

Ralph de Vere White, associate dean for cancer programs at UC Davis School of Medicine, director of the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and a distinguished professor of urology, has received the Huggins Medal Award from the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO).

Applications are now open for fall 2014 classes in the Master of Science — Leadership and the Doctor of Philosophy Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Degree Programs offered through the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. The school provides generous financial support to all admitted fall 2014 students.

Treating premature infants with probiotics, the dietary supplements containing live bacteria that many adults take to help maintain their natural intestinal balance, may be effective for preventing a common and life-threatening bowel disease among premature infants, researchers at UC Davis Children’s Hospital have found. [en español]

Jacqueline Crawley, the Robert E. Chason Endowed Chair in Translational Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, will participate in the Preclinical Autism Consortium for Therapeutics (PACT), a new partnership sponsored by Autism Speaksto facilitate the discovery of effective treatments for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Other collaborators in the initiative are at Boston Children's Hospital and at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

The Game Truck, a mobile video gaming party on wheels, is coming to the Sacramento campus of UC Davis and kids of all ages are invited to play. The free event is hosted by UC Davis Children's Hospital.

Bechara Choucair, a physician and commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, will speak in Sacramento as part of the 2013 UC Davis Health System Snively Visiting Professorship in Family and Community Medicine. His lecture is Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 5:30 p.m. in the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center auditorium, 4501 X St., with a reception at 5 p.m.

A research team led by Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and the University of California, Davis, reveals that childhood gunshot injuries, while uncommon, are more severe, require more major surgery, have greater mortality and higher per-patient costs than any other mechanism for childhood injury – particularly among adolescent males. The study is published online in the journal Pediatrics. [en español]

The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs has awarded the UC Davis CAARE Center a two-year, $400,000 grant to provide assessment, group therapy, individual therapy and case management for underage youth and youth who are at risk of sexual exploitation.

The 2013-14 season of the UC Davis MIND Institute's Minds Behind the MIND series begins in November with nationally recognized MIND Institute researchers partnering with community representatives to provide the latest information on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), one of many neurodevelopmental disabilities studied at the MIND Institute. Subsequent presentations focus on how technology can aid people with developmental disabilities and on new findings in autism treatments.

Using a common test of brain functioning, UC Davis researchers have found differences in the brains of adolescents with the inattentive and combined subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and teens who do not have the condition, suggesting that the test may offer a potential biomarker for the types of the disorder. [中文 Chinese] or [en español]

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute will participate in an international consortium spanning four continents that will study the genetics of schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders in chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome through a four-year, $12 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to the International Consortium on Brain and Behavior in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome.

Cigarette alternatives, widely perceived to be safe, are often addictive and can be stepping stones to cigarette smoking, according to a scientific review published online in the journal Clinical Reviews in Allergy and Immunology.

Bennet Omalu, a UC Davis associate clinical professor of pathology who discovered the devastating neurological disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in the brain of the Pittsburgh Steelers legend Mike Webster, will appear in a PBS Frontline documentary titled “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis.” The program airs Tuesday, Oct. 8, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Sacramento PBS station KVIE-Channel 6.

Nearly 40,000 donors committed $149.1 million to UC Davis during the 2012-13 fiscal year, surpassing the previous year’s total of $132.4 million and marking the seventh consecutive year that philanthropic gifts exceeded $100 million.

Although a number of chain restaurants have announced healthy menu changes over the years, the overall calorie and sodium levels in main entrées offered by top U.S. chain restaurants assessed from 2010 to 2011 have remained the same, according to a study published today in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. [en español]

September 2013

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis will conduct a free information session at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, for students interested in the Doctor of Philosophy and the Master of Science — Leadership Degree programs.

UC Davis Health System and Marshall Medical Center have signed a contract that gives CalPERS employees in El Dorado County and Folsom the opportunity to select a new health maintenance organization (HMO) plan from Anthem Blue Cross for their health insurance. The HMO plan, which offers fixed co-pays for office visits and no deductibles, previously had been unavailable to CalPERS employees in El Dorado County who wanted to receive care from providers affiliated with Marshall Medical Center.

A consortium of the five University of California medical campuses at Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco has been awarded a $12 million grant and designated as one of three Centers for Accelerated Innovations by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The award, among the first of its kind from NHLBI, recognizes the University of California’s potential to translate its leading-edge discoveries into innovative products that benefit patients.

Breastfeeding problems are extremely common among first-time moms, often causing them to introduce formula or completely abandon breastfeeding within two months, report researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

The UC Davis MIND Institute begins the 12th year of its Distinguished Lecturer Series on Wednesday, Oct. 9. The venerable series' presenters include nationally and internationally recognized researchers in autism spectrum disorder, fragile X-associated disorders and other neurodevelopmental conditions.

A scientific survey of gun dealers and pawnbrokers in 43 U.S. states has found nearly unanimous support for denying gun purchases based on prior convictions and for serious mental illness with a history of violence or alcohol or drug abuse – conditions that might have prevented Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis from legally purchasing a firearm.

Linda Burnes Bolton, the nurse scientist who led the two-year initiative that resulted in the landmark Institute of Medicine’s 2010 report, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” was honored Thursday with the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis 2013 Excellence in Leadership Award.

Jacqueline N. Crawley, an internationally renowned behavioral neuroscientist, has received a five-year, nearly $3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to understand the synaptic dysfunctions that limit how people with certain neurodevelopmental disorders form memories and learn. The research also will investigate the effectiveness of potential targeted therapies for the disorders: fragile X syndrome, Rett syndrome, Down syndrome and Angelman syndrome.

Activating a mother’s immune system during her pregnancy disrupts the development of neural cells in the brain of her offspring and damages the cells' ability to transmit signals and communicate with one another, researchers with the Center for Neuroscience and Department of Neurology have found. The researchers said the finding suggests how maternal viral infection might increase the risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder or schizophrenia.

A comprehensive report released today by the American Association for Cancer Research details progress against cancer thanks to biomedical research and advances in prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment.

An experimental vaccine against human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, which endangers the developing fetus, organ transplant recipients, patients with HIV and others who have a weakened immune system, was safe and more effective than previous vaccines developed to prevent infection by the ubiquitous virus.

Julie Freischlag, currently the William Stewart Halsted professor and department director and surgeon-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, has been named the UC Davis vice chancellor for human health sciences and dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine, Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi announced today.

Children with a genetic disorder called 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, who frequently are believed to also have autism, often may be misidentified because the social impairments associated with their developmental delay may mimic the features of autism, a study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute suggests.

When public health budgets are constrained, mammography screening should begin later and occur less frequently, a cost-effectiveness analysis for California’s Every Woman Counts (EWC) program concludes. [en español]

Garen Wintmute, one of the nation’s foremost scholars addressing violence as a public-health problem, has been selected to receive the 2013 Distinguished Career Award from the Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section of the American Public Health Association. He will receive the award at the association’s annual meeting in Boston in November.

Brook Byers, a general partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, a venture capital firm that launched Google, Amazon, Genentech and several other industry-defining companies, will describe lessons learned from a decade of helping scientists and entrepreneurs build medically focused companies based on molecular diagnostics, biotech and informatics breakthroughs.

Ulfat Shaikh, director of Healthcare Quality at the UC Davis School of Medicine and UC Davis Children's Hospital pediatrician, is scheduled to speak at the 2013 Fall Convocation on Davis campus this year.

The UC Davis Injury and Trauma Prevention Program has received a grant for $233,774 from Kohl’s Cares® to support its child and adolescent injury prevention efforts in the Sacramento area. Kohl’s will formally present the donation at the UC Davis Children’s Hospital free Community Concert at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept.12.

The largest study of computed tomographic (CT) scans taken in emergency departments across the country for children with head injuries describes the prevalence of “incidental findings” – results that were not expected from the injury – and categorizes them by urgency. The article, titled “Incidental findings in children with blunt head trauma evaluated with cranial CT scans,” was published in the August issue of Pediatrics, and provides a context for doctors in emergency departments who encounter these situations.

Mark D. Smith, president and chief executive officer of the California HealthCare Foundation, will discuss medicine’s growing complexity and capabilities at the UC Davis School of Medicine 2013 Dean’s Lecture.

The degeneration of a small, wishbone-shaped structure deep inside the brain may provide the earliest clues to future cognitive decline, long before healthy older people exhibit clinical symptoms of memory loss or dementia, a study by researchers at the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center has found.

Using a virtual‐reality game, UC Davis researchers have begun to examine how children with high‐functioning autism learn in classroom settings, where social deficits can form obstacles to the engagement with teachers and classmates necessary for academic success. The study will examine their virtual classroom behavior and attention and compare it with that of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and those with typical development.

Gerard ‘t Hooft, one of the international scientists whose Nobel Prize winning research contributed to the discovery of the Higgs particle, will speak in Sacramento on September 5 about how the particle was detected, what it means in terms of understanding the subatomic world and the future discoveries it will likely inspire.

Researchers who participated in a National Institutes of Health study, including pediatric emergency medicine physicians at UC Davis Medical Center, have settled an important question on how to treat children with status epilepticus, a potentially fatal seizure disorder characterized by continuous or repeated seizures.

Glucose monitoring systems with an autocorrect feature that can detect red blood cells (hematocrit), vitamin C and other common interferents in burn patients’ blood are better for monitoring care, a pilot study conducted by UC Davis researchers at the School of Medicine and College of Engineering has found. The study was published in the Journal of Burn Care Research.

Two Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Postdoctoral Fellows recently received appointments at prestigious nursing colleges, adding their names to a growing list of the school’s postdoctoral alumni tapped to educate the next generation of nurses at colleges and universities nationwide.

The young and the young at heart are invited to a free and festive evening of music featuring perennial favorite Mumbo Gumbo, a cornucopia of wares from the weekly Farmers Market, and the Kids Zone at the annual outdoor concert, presented by UC Davis Children’s Hospital. The concert is co-hosted by the UC Davis Health System Community Advisory Board and Shriners Hospitals for Children – Northern California.

The UC Davis Hospice Program and UC Davis Children's Hospital Bereavement Program will offer an eight-week Young Adult Bereavement Art Group for individuals 17 to 24 who are coping with the recent loss of a loved one.

Claudia Kawas, the Al and Trish Nichols Chair in Clinical Neuroscience at the University of California, Irvine, will discuss ‘The 90+ Study,’ one of the largest population-based studies of “the oldest of the old” in the world, during the October UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation. The lecture will be held on Thursday, Oct. 24 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the UC Davis Health System Education Building, Room 1222, at the intersection of X and 45th streets.

Nicholas Kenyon, a pulmonary and critical care physician at UC Davis Medical Center, has been recognized by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) for building a collaborative training program with the UC Davis College of Engineering known as Capstone Senior Design Course.

More than 20,000 people in Pakistan are being tested for the potentially deadly stage of tuberculosis using a new strategy developed at UC Davis Health System to effectively detect the disease in children for the first time.

Researchers at UC Davis have received a five-year, $2.5 million grant to study whether viewing videotaped interviews with patients to assess them and guide their mental-health treatment is more cost-effective and better for patient outcomes and satisfaction than real-time telepsychiatric evaluation.

UC Davis scientists have uncovered a potential drug target for the development of an effective therapy against the debilitating, chronic form of the bacterial disease brucellosis, which primarily afflicts people in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern countries.

In a new report, the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) recommends that the state launch pilot programs to test a new model of community-based health care that would expand the role of paramedics under certain circumstances.

Many patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are not benefiting from the expanding array of treatments now available to combat these serious autoimmune disorders, researchers led by a UC Davis dermatologist report in a new study published online today by JAMA Dermatology.

An international team of pediatric specialists, representing the world’s five major pediatric emergency medicine research networks, has identified several crucial risk factors for alerting clinicians to children most susceptible to life-threatening infections from the H1N1 influenza (flu). It is the first study to detail which clinical factors at hospital arrival in children with influenza-like illness and H1N1 infection are associated with the progressive risk to either severe infection or death.

The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) has named Nancy E. Lane, endowed professor of internal medicine and rheumatology, as this year’s recipient of its Paula Stern Achievement Award.

Using a special microchip that can perform laboratory functions, a team of cardiologists and biomedical engineers from UC Davis has identified cells linked with inflammation and varying degrees of heart disease.

UC Davis researchers have identified how and where in the genome a cancer chemotherapy agent acts on and ‘un-silences’ the epigenetically silenced gene that causes Angelman syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by severe intellectual disability, seizures, motor impairments, and laughing and smiling.

Researchers at UC Davis have received a three-year, $725,000 grant from the National Institute on Mental Health to develop new, creative approaches to decreasing the burden of late-life depression and the risk of suicide among older men.

Anne Knowlton, a leading investigator on the cellular mechanisms involved in cardiac injury and heart failure, was recognized with the Albrecht Fleckenstein Memorial Award for distinguished work in the field of basic research at the opening ceremony of the Annual Scientific Sessions of the International Academy of Cardiology's 18th World Congress on Heart Disease.

Environmental epidemiologist Irva Hertz-Picciotto, UC Davis professor of public health sciences, has been appointed to the Neurological, Aging and Musculoskeletal Epidemiology (NAME) Study Section of the Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The appointment is effective immediately and ends in June 2017.

July 2013

Yesterday was 4-year-old Jamey Silva’s birthday, but instead of spending it at home with family and friends he was at UC Davis Children’s Hospital, recovering from surgery to correct a congenital heart ailment.

Study participants who took a new herbal supplement, while also exercising and controlling their food intake, had greater success in losing weight and slimming down than did those who didn’t take the supplement, report researchers at the University of California, Davis, and in India.

One of regenerative medicine’s greatest goals is to develop new treatments for stroke. So far, stem cell research for the disease has focused on developing therapeutic neurons — the primary movers of electrical impulses in the brain — to repair tissue damaged when oxygen to the brain is limited by a blood clot or break in a vessel. New UC Davis research, however, shows that other cells may be better suited for the task. [ 中文 (Chinese)] [en español]

Richard L. Kravitz, professor of internal medicine with UC Davis Health System, has been appointed interim director of the University of California Center Sacramento — a systemwide program managed by UC Davis.

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute are seeking adolescents to participate in a groundbreaking brain imaging study aimed at understanding one of the most critical aspects of autism spectrum disorders: how people with autism generalize things they learn to new contexts.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis seeks a postdoctoral scholar to focus on cancer research supported by health information technology. The full-time, one-year opportunity includes collaboration to develop a research program of patient-centered cancer care to improve quality and cost of care.

Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Doctoral Candidate Katherine Kim and a team of researchers recommend the development of guidelines that protect patient preferences and privacy while allowing investigators to share data through electronic health records and other databases. The research, “Development of a Privacy and Security Policy Framework for a Multi-state Comparative Effectiveness Research Network,” is published today in Medical Care, a national public health journal.

UC Davis Health System’s Eye Center has received a $250,000 Career Development Award from Research to Prevent Blindness to support the research of Ala Moshiri, an assistant professor of ophthalmology and director of electrophysiology services at the Eye Center.

For a third consecutive year, UC Davis Medical Center has been recognized as a “Leader in LGBT Healthcare Equality” in the Healthcare Equality Index, an annual survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the country’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender organization.

For a third consecutive year, UC Davis Health System has been designated as one of the nation’s health leaders in information technology. The designation is based on the results of the 2013 “Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study” published in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine.

Researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute have found that prenatal exposure to specific antibodies found only in mothers of children with autism leads to changes in the brain that adversely affect behavior and development. [en español]

Children who were later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder had excessive cerebrospinal fluid and enlarged brains in infancy, a study by a multidisciplinary team of researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found, raising the possibility that those brain anomalies may serve as potential biomarkers for the early identification of the neurodevelopmental disorder. [en español or 中文 Chinese]

UC Davis MIND Institute researchers have identified the specific antibodies that target fetal brain proteins in the blood of a subset of women whose children are diagnosed with autism. The finding is the first to pinpoint a specific risk factor for a significant subset of autism cases, as well as a biomarker for drug development and early diagnosis. The researchers have named autism related to these antibodies “Maternal Autoantibody-Related," or MAR autism. [en español] [中文 Chinese]

Orthopedic oncologists and surgical oncologists, who have been trained in the complex procedures required to remove sarcomas located deep in the muscles and other soft tissues of the limbs, conducted only 52 percent of these operations at 85 academic medical centers during a three year period, according to an analysis of national data by UC Davis researchers that is published online today in the Journal of Surgical Oncology.

The U.S. News & World Report graduate school rankings inspire discussion and marketing, but do they actually reflect quality differences between schools when it comes to medical education in primary care? Researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine are believed to be the first to take on that question by analyzing the primary care rankings from 2009 through 2012, reconstructing scores and proposing alternative measurements.

David A. Acosta, previously chief diversity officer at the University of Washington School of Medicine, has been named associate vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at UC Davis Health System, effective July 8. [en español]

A group of seven UC Davis Health System students, faculty and fellows traveled to Washington, D.C., to take part in a program designed to develop health-care professionals’ leadership skills and policy expertise, meet with members of Congress and visit the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In what researchers say is the first public health study of the aerial mosquito spraying method to prevent West Nile virus, a UC Davis study analyzed emergency department records from Sacramento area hospitals during and immediately after aerial sprayings in the summer of 2005. [en español]

A protein secreted with insulin travels through the bloodstream and accumulates in the brains of individuals with type 2 diabetes and dementia, in the same manner as the amyloid beta (Αβ) plaques that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, a study by researchers with the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center has found. [en español or 中文 Chinese]

UC Davis holds its annual Summer Institute on Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Research to Practice on Friday, Aug. 2, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the UC Davis Conference Center. The daylong conference offers nine interactive seminars on a broad array of subjects by some of the world’s leading experts on neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Yvonne Wan, vice chair for research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, received certificates of appreciation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' National Institute of Health (NIH) for her many years of service in the area of public health. She was honored during a June 6 NIH Study Section session in Bethesda, Md.

Researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute and Agilent Laboratories have found that Prader-Willi syndrome — a genetic disorder best known for causing an insatiable appetite that can lead to morbid obesity — is associated with the loss of non-coding RNAs, resulting in the dysregulation of circadian and metabolic genes, accelerated energy expenditure and metabolic differences during sleep.

Debra Bakerjian, an assistant adjunct professor and senior director for nurse practitioner and physician assistant clinical education and practice at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, was recently selected as a 2013 Fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP).

Nine undergraduate students from across the country joined the pathology and laboratory medicine department this week to begin eight weeks of study and research as Hugh Edmondson Summer Research Fellows.

More Americans are coping with chronic pain than ever before. Yet clinicians’ understanding of pain and their pain management skills vary widely because no such educational framework exists. Following an Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendation, two UC Davis researchers led a team of experts to develop expectations for consistent, comprehensive pain management education for new health professionals, including nurses, physicians, pharmacists and physical therapists.

A study of the patients who received injections of steroids contaminated with the fungus Exserohilum rostratum from the New England Compounding Center has found that some patients had fungal infections even though they did not experience a worsening of their symptoms and that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help detect spinal infections, especially among those individuals who received injections from highly contaminated lots. The study, along with an editorial by UC Davis Assistant Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology George R. Thompson, appears in the June 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Professor Mary Lou de Leon Siantz was recently appointed by UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi as director for the new Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS). The center is part of a new effort, led by Katehi, to increase the participation of women, especially Latinas, in academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.

UC Davis School of Medicine in partnership with Kaiser Permanente has received a $1 million grant from the American Medical Association (AMA) for an innovative education program designed for an elite group of medical students committed to careers in primary care.

From the class representative to the keynote speaker at the 2013 Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing Graduation Celebration, the messages included a similar theme to the Master of Science in Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership graduates: Be the nurses who lead improvements in health care.

Sacramento State student Kimberly Schmidt and her father, Bobby Schmidt, a brain tumor patient at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, 23 young athletes running in the 4K for Cancer event from San Francisco to Baltimore, MD to raise money for the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.

UC Davis Health System will become the first academic health system in the country to incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity as standard demographic elements within the electronic health records for its patients.

A study examining trends in X-ray computed tomography (CT) use in children in the United States has found that reducing unnecessary scans and lowering the doses for the highest-dose scans could lower the overall lifetime risk of future imaging-related cancers by 62 percent. The research by a UC Davis Health System scientist is published online today in JAMA Pediatrics. It is accompanied by a journal editorial. [en español]

UC Davis has a long history of research pertaining to appropriate CT scanning in children with trauma, and the risks to children of unnecessary CT scans. This work has been performed through its leadership in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), the only federally funded pediatric emergency care research network in the U.S., co-founded by Nathan Kuppermann, chair of the UC Davis Department of Emergency Medicine and an internationally respected pediatric emergency medicine physician.

UC Davis Health System Eye Center research has found that visually impaired individuals and those with uncorrected refractive error — those who could benefit from glasses to achieve normal vision but don’t wear glasses — have a significantly greater risk of diminished balance with their eyes closed on a compliant, foam surface than individuals with normal vision.

UC Davis Children’s Hospital has been re-verified as a level I Pediatric Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons, making it one of only three level I Pediatric Trauma Centers in California and the only one between the Oregon border and Los Angeles.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis expands its graduate programs this summer to include master’s-degree offerings for aspiring nurse practitioners and physician assistants with a focus on preparing primary-care providers for rural and underserved communities.

Three members of the UC Davis Department of Emergency Medicine were honored recently for their achievements and leadership at this year’s annual Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) meeting in Atlanta.

Working to improve cardiac arrest training — training for what are called “Code Blue” events — a multidisciplinary UC Davis Health System team has created a novel initiative that takes advantage of the university’s high-tech simulation facilities and equipment and its highly regarded emergency and trauma-care expertise.

To attract and maintain a diverse, qualified academic workforce, institutions of higher education should have — and promote — policies to help balance career and family life, according to an article published by UC Davis researchers in the June 2013 issue of Academic Medicine.

Offering flu vaccines at elementary schools could expand vaccination rates and reduce costs, according to a new study reported in the scientific journal Vaccine by researchers from UC Davis Health System; the Monroe County, N.Y., Department of Public Health; University of Rochester Medical Center; and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [en español]

First-year UC Davis medical student Amrita Krishnamurthy has won the 2013 Hematology Opportunities for the Next-Generation of Research Scientists Award, also known as the HONORS Award, from the American Society of Hematology (ASH).

Two UC Davis School of Medicine faculty have been recognized with the C. John Tupper Prize for Excellence in Teaching and the Hibbard Williams Extraordinary Achievement Award as part of this year’s commencement events.

What started as a dinner-table conversation between a teen and his father has become a bonafide cancer research study for Matthew Lara, a Davis High School sophomore and the son of UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center medical oncologist and researcher Primo (Lucky) Lara Jr.

Wide geographic variation in Medicare costs is largely explained by health differences across communities rather than inefficient care delivery, according to a study published online today in the SAGE journal Medical Care Research and Review.

Two UC Davis Health System faculty were recognized today as 2013 Health Care Heroes by the Sacramento Business Journal for theiroutstanding achievements in making a difference in the health of the Sacramento region. Psychiatrist Robert Hales was recognized in the mental health practitioner category and cardiologist Amparo Villablanca was recognized in the researcher category.

Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, a UC Davis physician and internationally renowned expert on mental health and other conditions that frequently impact underserved populations, will appear in a documentary titled “A New State of Mind: Ending the Stigma of Mental Illness,” set to air Thursday,May 30, at 9 p.m. on Sacramento PBS station KVIE-Channel 6.

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute and the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain have received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct the first long-range study of the mental and psychological decline that accompanies the age-related neurological disorder fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome, or FXTAS.

Renowned geneticist Stephen Scherer, who holds the GlaxoSmithKline-Canadian Institutes of Health Research Endowed Chair in Genome Sciences at The Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto, will discuss “Interpreting the Many Autism Risk Genes” during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

Past trauma and a lack of understanding of the U.S. health-care system are key factors affecting the mental and physical health of Iraqi refugees in Sacramento, according to a new report released by UC Davis’ Center for Reducing Health Disparities and Clinical and Translational Science Center, as well as Opening Doors Inc. and the Mesopotamia Organization (MESO) — two community groups that serve refugee populations.

Working with lab mice models of multiple sclerosis (MS), UC Davis scientists have detected a novel molecular target for the design of drugs that could be safer and more effective than current FDA-approved medications against MS.

The California Health eQuality (CHeQ) program, managed by the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI), has launched a new $1 million Rural Health Information Exchange Incentive Program to help physicians, clinics and hospitals in rural California implement technologies that enable the secure and reliable exchange of health information to improve health-care quality, lower costs and achieve federal meaningful use criteria.

The UC Davis Center for Reducing Health Disparities has received a $1 million grant from Covered California, the state’s health insurance marketplace, to provide outreach and education to underserved populations about obtaining health insurance.

Joshua Fenton, a UC Davis associate professor of family and community medicine, is the recipient of the UC Davis School of Medicine’s 2013 Joan Oettinger Memorial Award for his research in cancer screening and prevention and his dedication to improving the quality of health-care services.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union announced on Friday (May 10) that it is asking UC patient care and service employees to strike at UC medical centers on May 21 and 22. The strike is scheduled to start at 4 a.m. on May 21 and continue until 3:59 a.m. on May 23.

Three researchers from the University of California, Davis, are among the scientists selected to receive Individual Biomedical Research Awards from The Hartwell Foundation this year. The awards recognize early-stage, innovative and cutting-edge biomedical research that has the potential to benefit children in the U.S. and beyond

—One of the most effective treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) — pulmonary rehabilitation — could potentially work even better if programs were designed based on gender, according to a UC Davis pulmonary physician.

When brain cells are overwhelmed by an influx of too many calcium molecules, they shut down the channels through which these molecules enter the cells. Until now, the “stop” signal mechanism that cells use to control the molecular traffic was unknown. In the new issue of the journal Neuron, UC Davis Health System scientists report that they have identified the mechanism. Their findings are relevant to understanding the molecular causes of the disruption of brain functioning that occurs in stroke and other neurological disorders.

“Portraits of Artists with Dementia” is the topic of the first UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center Distinguished Lecture, to be presented by Bruce L. Miller, director of the UC San Francisco Memory and Aging Center, on Thursday, May 23. The lecture will be presented from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the UC Davis MIND Institute, 2825 50th St., Sacramento. The discussion is free and open to the public; no reservations are required.

Based on a major effort co-led by UC Davis prostate cancer expert Richard Valicenti, the nation’s leading urological and radiation oncology organizations today announced a new guideline for radiation therapy after prostatectomy.

A consortium of scientists from across the country has found that breathing ultrafine particles from a large family of materials that increasingly are found in a host of household and commercial products, from sunscreens to the ink in copy machines to super-strong but lightweight sporting equipment, can cause lung inflammation and damage.

UC Davis Medical Center has been named a recipient of the Mother-Baby Friendly Workplace Award from the Breastfeeding Coalition of Greater Sacramento, an affiliate of the California Breastfeeding Coalition. Each year, the coalition presents the award to local organizations that have been nominated by their employees to demonstrate appreciation for businesses that go 'above and beyond' to support their breastfeeding employees. The award will be presented on May 13 at 11 a.m. on the North Steps of the State Capital.

The Academic Senate and Academic Federation of UC Davis will come together on May 14 to present their highest faculty honors. Pain medicine specialist Scott Fishman and public health advocate Joy Melnikow of UC Davis Health System will be recognized for distinguished public service.

Wylie Burke, professor and chair of the Department of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington, will speak on Thursday, May 16, as part of the UC Davis Bioethics Distinguished Lecture series.

The American Association of Family Physicians (AAFP) has recognized UC Davis School of Medicine as one of the nation’s top 10 schools for graduating medical students who go on to family medicine residencies.

UC Davis Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences David Amaral, director of research at the UC Davis MIND Institute, will be the first director of a new network of sites that will collect and disseminate autism brain tissue to advance research in the field.

April 2013

In a commentary published in the May issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, UC Davis bioethicist Mark Yarborough proposes that more information about the social value of individual research studies be made available to patients during the informed consent process so they are more aware of the degree to which a study has the potential to improve health for all.

A study by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute and the Yale University School of Medicine has found that more than 95 percent of the placentas of infants who are among those at the greatest risk for developing autism contained abnormal cells, called trophoblast inclusions, suggesting that the abnormality may hold promise as a very early marker for autism risk.

UC Davis ophthalmology resident Bobeck Modjtahedi has been awarded one of this year’s prestigious Heed Fellowships. A graduate of UC Davis and UC Davis School of Medicine, Modjtahedi will finish his residency training at the UC Davis Eye Center in June and then continue postgraduate training at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital in Boston.

Epidemiologist Craig Newschaffer of Drexel University will discuss "Autism Outcomes and Risk Factors: What Can We Learn from Health-Care Claims?” during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

The UC Davis MIND Institute will host an update for parents and health-care professionals on research exploring the growing body of evidence suggesting associations between environmental mechanisms, immunological susceptibility and autism on Saturday, June 1.

A costly and widely used mammography add-on increases detection of noninvasive and early-stage invasive breast cancer but also makes more mistakes than mammography alone, researchers from UC Davis and the University of Washington have found. [en español]

Sheridan Miyamoto, a doctoral candidate in the Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Degree Program at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, was awarded a prestigious Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being. Miyamoto is one of just 15graduate students nationwide selected for the award this year.

Research by UC Davis physicians has found that women with a severe arterial condition that restricts circulation to arms and legs are at greater risk than men of experiencing a heart attack or stroke yet are less likely to have a history of heart disease or diabetes — common risk factors for major cardiovascular events.

More often than not, family doctors receive little or no information about the harmful effects of medicines during clinic visits by pharmaceutical sales representatives (“sales reps”), according to an international study involving physicians in the United States, Canada and France.

The most recent in a series of studies from a team at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center has shown that a single molecule is at the heart of one of the most basic survival tactics of prostate cancer cells.

Lin Tian, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine at UC Davis School of Medicine, is one of 28 scientists worldwide awarded a 2013 Young Investigator Grant from the Human Frontier Science Program to better understand the complex mechanisms of living organisms.

“Growing Up Latino and Surviving to 25,” a panel discussion exploring the mental-health challenges faced by Latino youth in the United States, will be held at UC Davis on April 23 and moderated by award-winning journalist and host of the National Public Radio program “Latino USA" Maria Hinojosa. [en español]

Minocycline, an older, broad-spectrum antibiotic in the tetracycline family, provides meaningful improvements as a therapeutic for children with fragile X syndrome, a study by researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute has found. The finding is important, the researchers said, because minocycline is readily available by prescription.

A news conference to discuss the third-annual Credit Union SacTown Ten-Mile Run will be held Friday, April 5 at 9:30 a.m. at UC Davis Medical Center, 2315 Stockton Blvd. Several top runners and representatives of the children's hospital, the sponsoring Credit Union Association, Sacramento Running Association and Assemblyman Roger Dickinson are scheduled to participate. The race, a benefit for the Children’s Miracle Network and UC Davis Children’s Hospital, will start and end at the Capitol on Sunday, April 7.

Spinal surgeons at UC Davis Health System are enrolling individuals immediately following spinal cord injury in a multi-center clinical trial of an investigational compound that is being tested to determine whether it can protect and regenerate the spinal nerves after catastrophic injury.

Autism researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute have received a prestigious $13 million award from the National Institutes of Health to establish an Autism Center of Excellence and Treatment Network, making the MIND Institute one of only nine such centers in the United States.

A team of UC Davis scientists has found that a product resulting from a metabolized omega-3 fatty acid helps combat cancer by cutting off the supply of oxygen and nutrients that fuel tumor growth and spread of the disease.

March 2013

Researchers at UC Davis have shown how the innate immune system distinguishes between dangerous pathogens and friendly microbes. Like burglars entering a house, hostile bacteria give themselves away by breaking into cells. However, sensing proteins instantly detect the invasion, triggering an alarm that mobilizes the innate immune response. This new understanding of immunity could ultimately help researchers find new targets to treat inflammatory disorders. The paper was published in Nature on March 31.

Like tiny, crawling compass needles, whole living cells and cell fragments orient and move in response to electric fields — but in opposite directions, scientists at the University of California, Davis, have found.

UC Davis stem cell researcher Paul Knoepfler has added a unique honor to his curriculum vitae: He is among the winners of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine’s (CIRM) first-ever Elevator Pitch Challenge, which were announced today.

Researchers at UC Davis and the University of British Columbia have shed new light on methylation, a critical process that helps control how genes are expressed. Working with placentas, the team discovered that 37 percent of the placental genome has regions of lower methylation, called partially methylated domains (PMDs), in which gene expression is turned off. This differs from most human tissues, in which 70 percent of the genome is highly methylated.

Bradley L. Schlaggar of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will discuss “Development of the Brain’s Functional Networks” during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

A team of researchers led by UC Davis MIND Institute Director Leonard Abbeduto will investigate the effectiveness of testing procedures to examine the spoken language development of people with fragile X syndrome and people with Down syndrome, through a new five-year, $3 million grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

New research from UC Davis published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that blocking an enzyme that promotes inflammation can prevent the tissue damage following a heart attack that often leads to heart failure.

New research from the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, published in the Journal of Surgical Research, may help clinicians determine which patients are at highest risk for post-surgical blood clots in the legs or lungs.

UC Davis Medical Center has been named one of “100 Hospitals and Health Systems with Great Oncology Programs” by Becker’s Hospital Review, a national publication geared to hospital and health system leaders.

An evaluation of practice patterns in California hospitals showed a large variation in the use of metal devices called inferior vena cava filters, or VCFs, despite little evidence of their safety and effectiveness. Led by UC Davis physicians, the study demonstrated that patients in larger, urban and private hospitals with more than 400 beds were most likely to be treated with one of the metal devices, which are placed intravenously to prevent pulmonary embolism.

Nearly half of the 107 medical students graduating from UC Davis in June will enter primary-care medicine residency programs, the highest percentage in more than a decade, demonstrating the school’s ongoing commitment to alleviating the nationwide shortage of providers in the specialty.

UC Davis Medical Center’s expansive, highly successful collection of race, ethnicity and language data from its patients has received a “Best Overall Project” award for 2012-13 from the Disparities Leadership Program.

A new study conducted by monitoring the brain waves of sleeping adolescents has found that remarkable changes occur in the brain as it prunes away neuronal connections and makes the major transition from childhood to adulthood.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Davis School of Medicine among America's best medical schools for the quality of its educational programs in primary care and research. The news magazine's annual listing appeared today on the publication's website and will be published in its 2014 guidebook, “America's Best Graduate Schools.”

How the deportation of undocumented Mexican migrants affects their American-born children, who are faced with either going with their parents to Mexico or remaining in the land of their birth without them, is an issue of paramount importance as the nation engages in discussion of comprehensive immigration reform ― and is the subject of groundbreaking new research by The University of Texas, Austin, UC Davis Health System and the National Institute of Psychiatry, Mexico. [en español]

Some 5.8 million Americans suffer from heart failure, a currently incurable disease. But scientists at Temple University School of Medicine's Center for Translational Medicine and UC Davis Health System have discovered a key biochemical step underlying the condition that could aid the development of new drugs to treat and possibly prevent it.

In honor of the 11th annual National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Health Awareness Week, UC Davis Health System will host its first "Come Out for Health" week March 25-28, targeting people from diverse backgrounds. This LGBT and diversity health awareness week will feature a lecture and film series, focusing on reducing health disparities and promoting health for all. All events are free of charge.

A scientific survey of more than 1,600 gun retailers in the U.S. has found that gun buyers frequently try to make illegal purchases and that gun retailers take a dim view of fellow sellers who engage in illegal activity — regardless of whether they are actively breaking the law or simply looking the other way.

Female doctors’ patients do not use health-care services more or die less frequently than patients treated by male doctors, a prospective, observational study by researchers at UC Davis Health System has found.

In an invited commentary, Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine physician and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, discusses important limitations of a new firearms and crime study linking firearms laws with lower firearm-related deaths.

Sally J. Rogers, UC Davis professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was honored on Monday during the Breaking the Glass Ceiling Awards of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus. The awards celebrate the successes of California women in breaking barriers in the fields of science, technology, the arts, the judiciary and beyond. The ceremony was part of the Assembly’s celebration of Women’s History Month during the Floor Session.

April is National Autism Awareness Month and the UC Davis MIND Institute, an institute respected internationally for its groundbreaking research into therapies for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, is holding a series of free, inclusive events in recognition of the month-long observance. The events also mark the 15-year anniversary of the MIND Institute, founded in 1998.

Frederic A. Troy, II, professor and chair emeritus of biochemistry and molecular medicine, has received a globally competitive research grant from the Mizutani Foundation for Glycoscience to better understand structural changes associated with metastasis of adult cancer cells and stem cells.

February 2013

Nurse scientist Nilda (Nena) Peragallo, one of the nation’s foremost researchers in HIV/AIDS risk reduction and prevention in Latinos, will discuss health disparities and the recruitment and retention of minority scientists as the featured speaker at the 2013 Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis Lecture Series: Leading Change, Advancing Health from 4 to 5 p.m. March 6 at the UC Davis Sacramento campus.

In a surprise breakthrough, researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute and their colleagues have found that microglia remove healthy neural progenitor cells (NPCs) through phagocytosis to control neuron production during brain development. This newly discovered mechanism keeps neuron numbers in check, preventing brain overgrowth. The discovery could open up new avenues for brain research and lead to therapies for a variety of neurological conditions.

Beginning in midlife, heart disease leads to subtle blood-flow problems in the brain that develop insidiously, gradually damaging neurons and contributing to cognitive decline. Knowledge of clinically silent blood-flow problems in the brain has led to the “healthy heart, healthy mind” hypothesis that preventing or treating heart disease also may help prevent age-associated cognitive decline.

A natural, nontoxic product called genistein-combined polysaccharide, or GCP, which is commercially available in health stores, could help lengthen the life expectancy of certain prostate cancer patients, UC Davis researchers have found.

Gun violence in the United States can be substantially reduced if Congress expands requirements for background checks on retail gun sales to cover firearm transfers between private parties, a new report by the director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program concludes.

A UC Davis pharmacologist has been awarded a two-year, $95,000 Innovation Award from the American Diabetes Association to find out if blocking the pancreatic hormone amylin can reduce diabetic heart failure.

Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute will examine whether children and youth with fragile X syndrome can improve their working memory, cognition and behavior by using an online computer-based cognitive training program, through a new $1 million grant from The John Merck Fund.

Dennis Matthews, professor emeritus at UC Davis and director of the NSF Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology, was elected a SPIE fellow for achievements in biophotonics innovation and commercialization. SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies.

UC Davis researcher M. Eric Gershwin has been recognized with the first Vasco da Gama Award for Explorations in Autoimmunity by Medinterna Association, an international organization dedicated to improving therapeutic strategies for immune-system diseases.

A new commentary in the Annals of Internal Medicine from researchers with The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and University of California, Davis, calls for more physician engagement in the current gun policy dialogue.

Vascular brain injury from conditions such as high blood pressure and stroke are greater risk factors for cognitive impairment among non-demented older people than is the deposition of the amyloid plaques in the brain that long have been implicated in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, a study by researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at UC Davis has found.

The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis seeks a visionary postdoctoral scholar to work under the guidance of expert faculty mentors in either interdisciplinary research on Latino health or child health services research.

Jacob Rutt is a bright 11-year-old who likes to draw detailed maps in his spare time. But the budding geographer has a hard time with physical skills most children take for granted ― running and climbing trees are beyond him, and even walking can be difficult. He was diagnosed with a form of muscular dystrophy known as Duchenne when he was two years old.

Scientists have long puzzled over why “bad” bacteria such as E.coli can thrive in the guts of those with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), causing serious diarrhea. Now UC Davis researchers have discovered the answer—one that may be the first step toward finding new and better treatments for IBD.

Already, a majority of UC Davis nurse practitioner and physician assistant graduates go on to work as primary-care providers in underserved areas and with hopes of further increasing these rates, the program will offer master’s degrees beginning with classes that enroll this summer.

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHoH) people must overcome significant professional barriers, particularly in health care professions. A number of accommodations are available for physicians and other health providers, such as electronic stethoscopes and closed-captioning technologies, but are these approaches making a difference?

Gaber Saleh, a second-year medical student, has won the 2012-13 Amin and Nancy Habbas Scholarship, established to help high-achieving students of Arab origin enrolled at the UC Davis School of Medicine. Saleh has received a $1,000 scholarship.

Generous – and hungry – donors at UC Davis Children’s Hospital were treated on Feb. 1 to a great breakfast on the run as a preview of IHOP National Pancake Day and to benefit the children's hospital and Children's Miracle Network (CMN).

A study of more than 12,000 children from emergency departments throughout the country in the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) has identified seven factors that can help physicians determine the need for a computed tomography (CT) scan following blunt trauma to the abdomen. Because CT scans pose radiation hazards for youngsters, the findings may enable doctors to determine which children do not need to be exposed to such tests after a traumatic injury.

January 2013

Catherine Lord, director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain, will discuss “Longitudinal Studies of Autism Spectrum Disorder” during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

Quilts are often given to celebrate a life change such as a marriage or the birth of a baby. Marilyn Jackson’s latest quilt celebrates much more: a life saved. On January 30, she presented UC Davis cardiothoracic surgeon David Cooke with a quilt she made for his 3½ year old daughter, Audrey.

A New Jersey-based nonprofit organization, the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), has awarded UC Davis physician Craig McDonald $175,000 to expand ongoing international research into better understanding the progression of Duchenne muscular dystrophy and determine the benefits of current standards of care that have been established by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Three UC Davis researchers are among the 10 new recipients of fellowships awarded by the University of California’s Center for Health Quality and Innovation. Representing five UC campuses, the recipients received the fellowships to support projects to improve the quality and value of care delivered by UC Health.

Research by Garen Wintemute, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program and professor of emergency medicine at UC Davis, forms the basis for several recommendations put forward earlier this month at the summit on Reducing Gun Violence in America, an event organized by the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health that brought together 20 of the world’s leading gun-policy experts representing the fields of law, medicine, public health, advocacy and public safety to summarize relevant research and its implications for policymakers and concerned citizens.

The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) has awarded more than $300,000 to UC Davis training programs to help ensure a robust primary health-care workforce in California.

When it comes to weight-loss surgery, Rafael Torres is happy to be a role model for others, even when it means becoming a model for the latest in fashion. The 41-year old Sacramento resident plans to proudly show off his new, healthy physique at UC Davis Medical Center’s 10th annual bariatric fashion show.

Professor Sir Andrew McMichael of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom will be the UC Davis School of Medicine’s 2013 Nelson Scientific Lecturer. He will speak on “T-cell immune responses against HIV-1: Can they be harnessed by vaccines?”on Wednesday, Feb. 6, at noon in Davis and at 5 p.m. in Sacramento.

Each year, the UC Davis Bariatric Surgery Program spotlights bariatric patients as they model fashions for business, leisure and formal occasions. This year’s event features more than a dozen patients who successfully lost significant weight following their operations.

Heather M. Young, associate vice chancellor for nursing at UC Davis and founding dean at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, joined more than a dozen health-care leaders in San Jose Jan. 15 to launch the California Advanced Primary Care Institute (CAPCI), a multi-pronged effort to improve the appeal of primary care as a career choice for health professionals and also elevate the performance of primary-care teams.

Iannis Adamopoulos, a researcher dedicated to studying diseases of the immune and skeletal systems, has received $1 million in grants from Shriners Hospitals for Children to find new treatment targets for juvenile arthritis — the most common cause of orthopaedic disability among children.

The California Health eQuality (CHeQ) program, managed by the UC Davis Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI), has awarded a $417,011 contract to Scientific Technologies Corporation (STC), a population health informatics service company based in Tucson, Ariz.. STC, in collaboration with CHeQ and the California Department of Public Health, will develop an immunization “gateway” that allows health-care providers throughout most of California to electronically submit patient immunization records for routing to state regional immunization registries and ultimately will enable secure access by doctors, schools, day-care centers and parents who need the information.

A common ingredient in flame retardants, BDE-49 accumulates in human blood, fat and breast milk. Despite these concentrations, little research has been done on the chemical’s potential health risks. However, a study by scientists at the UC Davis MIND Institute is shedding new light on BDE-49’s potential danger to brain health. The study showed that even tiny amounts of the compound damage neural mitochondria, the energy plants that power our cells. The chemical, quite literally, reduces brain power.

Olivia Marie Campa, a third-year medical student at UC Davis, will receive the American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation’s 2013 Leadership Award for outstanding non-clinical leadership skills in advocacy, community service and education at the annual Excellence in Medicine Awards ceremony on February 11, 2013 in Washington, D.C. [en español]

Residents of Kern County, where cancer rates overall are higher than the state average, will now have access to the expertise and experience of UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers and clinicians through a new hospital affiliation. [en español]

Two internationally respected UC Davis MIND Institute researchers have received grants from Autism Speaks, a national autism advocacy and science organization, to study autism from two different perspectives.

People who are “apple-shaped” — with fat more concentrated around the abdomen — have long been considered more at risk for conditions such as heart disease and diabetes than those who are “pear shaped” and carry weight more in the buttocks, hips and thighs. But new research conducted at UC Davis Health System published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism provides further evidence that the protective benefits of having a pear body shape may be more myth than reality. [en espanol]

UC Davis Professors Paul and Randi Hagerman have devoted their lives to finding cures for a host of disorders that all spring from an inherited defect on the X chromosome that causes lifelong intellectual disability in children, tremors in older men and reproductive problems in women.

Suzanne Gordon, an award-winning journalist and author and a visiting professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, spoke to more than 100 students, faculty and community members Wednesday evening at a leadership event at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis.

Recent estimates place the prevalence of Down syndrome at 1 in 691 births, making it the leading known genetic cause of intellectual disability. During the January UC Davis MIND Institute “Minds Behind the MIND” presentation, researchers will provide an update on what is known about Down syndrome, its impact on the individual and their family, and possible treatments.

Wendy L. Stone, director and Susan & Richard Fade Endowed Chair at the University of Washington Autism Center in Seattle, will discuss “From Early Detection to Early Intervention: Bridging the Gap in Autism Services” during the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

Workers earning the lowest wages have a higher risk of hypertension than workers with the highest wages, according to new research from UC Davis. The correlation between wages and hypertension was especially strong among women and persons between the ages of 25 to 44.

Though nicknamed “Tiny” by his family, an infant treated at UC Davis Children’s Hospital in 2011 is having a big effect on the lives of children with congenital heart disease in Sacramento and on his community.

New York Times best-selling author Gary Small, professor of psychiatry at UCLA and one of the world's leading physician/scientists in the fields of memory and longevity, will present a special lecture titled "Alzheimer’s Prevention Strategies for Keeping Your Brain Healthy," on Monday, Jan. 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the UC Davis MIND Institute auditorium.

Allison Donecker and her husband Brian rang in the new year in memorable fashion. Their new son, John, was born at 12:20 a.m. at UC Davis Medical Center, making him the Sacramento area’s first baby of 2013.

December 2012

Chancellor Emeritus Larry Vanderhoef was discharged from UC Davis Medical Center today after nearly four weeks of acute rehabilitation for a Dec. 1 ischemic stroke. He will continue to work with specialists as an outpatient to maintain and improve skills.

Garen Wintemute, a leading authority on gun violence prevention and an emergency medicine physician at UC Davis, believes broader criteria for background checks and denials on gun purchases can help prevent future firearm violence, including mass shooting catastrophes such as those that occurred at Sandy Hook, Aurora, Virginia Tech and Columbine. Wintemute’s views posted in the Online First section of the New England Journal of Medicine website as a Perspective article, entitled “Tragedy’s Legacy,” on December 26, 2012. It also will appear in the journal's January 31, 2013 print edition.

Three UC Davis MIND Institute research studies are included in the Top 10 Autism Research Achievements of 2012 as identified by Autism Speaks, the world’s largest autism advocacy and research organization.

A single genetic defect on the X chromosome that can result in a wide array of conditions — from learning and emotional disabilities to primary ovarian insufficiency in women and tremors in middle-aged men — occurs at a much greater frequency than previously thought, research led by the UC Davis MIND Institute has found.

Low-wage workers, who make up a large and growing share of the U.S. workforce, are especially vulnerable to financial hits that can result from on-the-job injuries and illnesses, according to a policy brief released by researchers at The George Washington University and based on a study conducted at the University of California, Davis.

Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine physician and director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program, is available to comment about issues related to gun violence prevention in response to the Connecticut elementary school shootings.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state’s stem cell agency, today approved a $3 million research grant for Emanual Maverakis, a UC Davis dermatologist who is exploring the development of a synthetic biomaterial that would enable stem cells to be used as effective therapies for chronic skin ulcers.

UC Davis Medical Center Chief Executive Officer provides additional details about the Plan of Correction sent to CMS. A copy of her letter to health system employees also appears here on the health system's public websites.

Professor Sir Andrew McMichael of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford will be the UC Davis School of Medicine’s 2013 Nelson Scientific Lecturer. There are two opportunities to hear McMichael's address, which is titled "T-cell immune responses against HIV-1: Can they be harnessed by vaccines?” He will speak on Wednesday, Feb. 6, at noon in Davis and at 5 p.m. in Sacramento.

UC Davis pediatric cancer and hematology patients get three hours of fun at the annual holiday party featuring painting stations, a Wii gaming area, arts and crafts, musical and magical entertainment, and a visit with Santa.

UC Davis Medical Center Chief Executive Officer discusses the on-site CMS survey conducted in late August and the leave of absence of neurosurgeon J. Paul Muizelaar. A copy of her letter to health system employees appears here and on other health system public websites.

Tickets are now on sale for the 33rd annual Wine Tasting and Auction Benefit at the UC Davis School of Medicine, set for Saturday, Jan. 12, from 5:30-9 p.m. in the Education Building on the UC Davis Sacramento campus, 4610 X Street

UC Davis Medical Center ranks among The Leapfrog Group's list of Top Hospitals for 2012, a distinction that places UC Davis among the top 10 percent of hospitals participating in the national survey. The award recognizes hospitals for their exceptional performance in critical areas of patient safety and quality, including mortality rates for certain common procedures, infection rates, established policies and procedures to prevent errors, and measures of efficient use of resources.

Chong Pan has been recognized by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) with a Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award. Pan, associate professor of medicine and leader of the cancer center’s urothelial carcinoma initiative, was one of 11 award recipients for FY 2011. Formal recognition of the recipients took place recently at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

UC Davis Health System is poised to become the first academic health system in the nation to have its physicians ask sexual orientation and gender identity questions as part of a patient’s routine clinical assessment.

Every four minutes, someone in the U.S. dies from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD --the incurable pulmonary disorder usually caused by smoking. COPD is the third highest cause of death in the U.S. after heart disease and cancer.

Although there is a widespread belief among physicians that the exercise treadmill test (ETT) is not reliable in evaluating the heart health of women, UC Davis researchers have found that the test can accurately predict coronary artery disease in women over the age of 65. They also found that two specific electrocardiogram (EKG) indicators of heart stress during an ETT further enhanced its predictive power.

November 2012

Boston University Professor and President of the International Society for Autism Research Helen Tager-Flusberg will give a presentation titled "On the Origins and Development of Language and Communication in Autism Spectrum Disorder" for the next UC Davis MIND Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series presentation.

Five UC Davis Health System faculty members have been elected as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They are among 702 new fellows -- including a total of 17 at the University of California, Davis -- honored for their scientifically distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. The AAAS will formally recognize new fellows on Feb. 16 during the association's annual meeting in Boston.

Amid increasing fear of overexposure to radiation from CT scans, a panel of experts has recommended more research on the health effects of medical imaging and ways to reduce unnecessary CT tests, as well as industry standardization of CT machines.

A UC Davis study has found that general thoracic surgeons, especially those at academic health centers, perform the vast majority of complex noncardiac operations, including surgeries of the esophagus and lungs. The authors said their results, published in the October issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, support the designation of general thoracic surgery as a distinct specialty, which will benefit patients when selecting surgeons for specific procedures.

To make the donation of toys and other gifts easier for generous businesses, nonprofit organizations and individuals who would like to make the season brighter for hospitalized infants, children, teens and other pediatric patients, UC Davis is offering donors the opportunity to drive-up and drop-off donations for the holidays.

Here are some suggestions of items that fair well in the hospital environment, and serve as great gifts to help the hospital celebrate special milestones and holidays that the children may experience while in the hospital. Thank you for your consideration! Please note that all items must be brand new because of infection control policies.

This Thanksgiving, Erin and Nick Ciapponi are spending their holiday in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit/Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PICU/PCICU) at UC Davis Children's Hospital. The Ciapponis will be seated at the bedside of their beautiful newborn baby boy, Guy, now a little more than two weeks old.

A UC Davis physician is calling on colleagues who treat swallowing disorders to join him in a Thanksgiving fast as a way to raise awareness and show solidarity for patients who suffer from dysphagia, a condition that makes swallowing food difficult or impossible.

Donald Bers, the Joseph Silva Endowed Chair for Cardiovascular Research and chair of the Department of Pharmacology at UC Davis, was recognized as a Distinguished Scientist at the American Heart Association's 2012 Scientific Sessions, which were held in Los Angeles Nov. 3-7.

Claire Pomeroy, vice chancellor for human health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, has announced that she will leave the university on June 30, at the end of the academic year.

An international team of geneticists, pediatricians, surgeons, and epidemiologists from 23 institutions across three continents have identified two areas of the human genome associated with the most common form of non-syndromic craniosynostosis ― premature closure of the bony plates of the skull. [en español] [中文 Chinese]

Borrowing a thematic page from Time magazine and its annual tradition of identifying an individual or idea that has influenced the events during the year, UC Davis stem cell researcher Paul Knoepfler is seeking nominees for what he's dubbed the "Stem Cell Person of the Year" award.

The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center will host a Tweet chat to discuss the latest approaches to lung cancer treatment on Nov. 27 at 1 p.m. in recognition of Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Twitter users are invited to log in and join the conversation about new medical, surgical and radiation oncology approaches to the disease from cancer center experts. To join, follow #UCDcancerchat.

UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento and Dameron Hospital in Stockton will be forming a joint venture that will allow Dameron Hospital to strengthen its core medical services while delivering more care locally, and advances UC Davis' historic land-grant mission to identify and help meet important societal needs.

The UC Davis Children's Hospital Child Life Department this year will be the beneficiary of the Rosie Carollo Christmas Lights Toy Drive, an annual toy drive held in memory of Rosie Carollo, who was born at UC Davis Children's Hospital in 2002 and passed away in 2004 from a rare form of childhood epilepsy.

In a sobering study published in the journal Environmental Health, researchers at UC Davis and UCLA measured food-borne toxin exposure in children and adults by pinpointing foods with high levels of toxic compounds and determining how much of these foods were consumed.

Third-year pathology and laboratory medicine resident Rebecca Jung-Hee Sonu received a 2012 Resident Representative Leadership Award from the American Society for Clinical Pathology on Nov. 2 at the society's annual meeting in Boston.

UC Davis researchers have found that for children with the genetic disorder known as chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome anxiety ― but not intelligence ― is linked to poorer adaptive behaviors that affect daily life. The developmental syndrome, which is associated with a constellation of physical, cognitive and psychiatric problems, usually is apparent at birth or early childhood, and leads to lifelong challenges. [en español] or [中文 Chinese]

Olivia Marie Campa, a third-year medical student at the UC Davis School of Medicine, is one of five students nationwide receiving a 2012 Herbert W. Nickens Medical Student Scholarship award today at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges in San Francisco.

November is COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) Awareness Month and a good time to increase public awareness of symptoms and treatments for the disease along with research that could expand options for patients. Several UC Davis physicians and researchers are available as media resources on COPD. To schedule an interview with a pulmonary specialist, contact Karen Finney at 916-734-9064 or karen.finney@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu.

Charles DeCarli, director of the UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center and an internationally renowned expert on behavioral neurology, degenerative dementias and neuroimaging, is the first Victor and Genevieve Orsi Endowed Chair in Alzheimer's Research at UC Davis Health System.

UC Davis Health System's Trauma Prevention Program and its Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation are seeking participants for a new community health initiative designed to reduce falls among older adults.

Community and mental-health leaders from across California will participate in a daylong conference to explore effective and culturally and linguistically appropriate solutions to mental illness among the nearly 40 percent of the state's population that identifies as Latino.

A team of UC Davis investigators has discovered a protein on the surface of lung cancer cells that could prove to be an important new target for anti-cancer therapy. A series of experiments in mice with lung cancer showed that specific targeting of the protein with monoclonal antibodies reduced the size of tumors, lowered the occurrence of metastases and substantially lengthened survival time. The findings will be published in the November issue of Cancer Research.

The UC Davis Health System's Institute for Population Health Improvement (IPHI) today released the first edition of its "HIE Ready Buyers' Guide" to facilitate health information exchange (HIE), especially in California.